Safe Staffing Act hearing exposes split between hospital groups and workers over composition and flexibility of staffing committees

Delegate Jennifer White Holland presented House Bill 9 0 5, the Safe Staffing Act of 2025, to the Health and Government Operations Committee. The bill would require Maryland hospitals to create clinical staffing committees composed in part of direct-care workers and a patient advocate, develop public staffing plans and collect data to inform staffing decisions.

White Holland said the measure is intended to address high vacancy rates in nursing and long emergency department wait times. She cited the Maryland Health Care Workforce Report showing 1 in 4 hospital nursing positions vacant and said 62 percent of nurses report considering leaving the profession; she argued a staffing committee process would better include frontline workers in designing staffing plans.

Union and patient advocates urged a favorable report. Testimony in favor included Bridge DuMay of 1199 SEIU, who said staffing committees give workers a real voice and can reduce turnover; Bridge DuMay and others recounted instances of patient harm they attribute to understaffing. AARP Maryland and Marylanders for Patient Rights also supported the bill.

Hospitals and nursing leadership testified in opposition or with concerns. Andrew Nicholas of the Maryland Hospital Association said most Maryland hospitals already use shared governance and staffing committees at unit level; he said the bill as written risks reducing flexible, real‑time staffing adjustments because committees would be centralized and required to post staffing plans and update them whenever they change. Christine Frost of Luminis Health and the Maryland Organization of Nurse Leaders argued staffing plans must remain flexible to address emergent patient needs and warned the mandate could have unintended consequences such as closed beds.

Members of the committee probed the sponsor and witnesses on whether the bill duplicates or conflicts with an existing statewide commission on emergency department throughput and how hospitals currently handle unit‑by‑unit staffing decisions. The sponsor said the bill is intended to complement ongoing efforts and provide a baseline process to ensure worker voices are included. Some hospital representatives said many facilities already have shared‑governance models and unit‑level staffing committees; others urged more precise drafting to preserve the ability to flex staffing daily.

The bill excludes state hospitals in its current form to limit fiscal impact, a point discussed at length; opponents argued that exclusion could be inequitable. The committee held robust back-and-forth but no final vote on the bill was recorded in the hearing transcript.

Several witnesses from other states described positive results from mandated staffing committees. Johnny Gonzales, a nurse in New York, said New York’s state committee law helped his hospital increase staff and make unit‑level changes that improved patient care.

Sponsor and hospital representatives agreed to continue discussions on drafting and scope.