Nurse-to-patient ratios at New York hospitals

By the 199 hospitals' own 2026-2027 staffing plans, the median hospital plans 5.0 patients per RN on medical/surgical units, 2.0 patients per RN on critical care units, 2.0 patients per RN on intensive care units, 3.7 patients per RN on stepdown units, 5.0 patients per RN on telemetry units, 4.5 patients per RN on emergency department units and 2.6 patients per RN on obstetrics/gynecology units on the day shift. Each hospital's page lists every unit and shift.

New York's 2021 staffing law (Public Health Law 2805-t) requires every general hospital to have a clinical staffing committee, at least half of it registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and ancillary staff who give direct care, which sets a staffing plan for each unit and shift; the Department of Health publishes the plans. A state rule also sets one registered nurse for every two patients in critical care. Other units' ratios are each hospital's plan, not a state minimum.

By their plans' day shifts: River Hospital, Inc. (0.3), New York Eye And Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (1.8), Crouse Hospital (2.7), University Hospital SUNY Health Science Center (3.0) and UPSTATE University Hospital at Community General (3.1). The most: Brooklyn Hospital Center - Downtown Campus (12.2), Plainview Hospital (9.0) and United Health Services Hospitals Inc - Binghamton General Hospital (8.0). Figures are planned patients per RN, each hospital's median across its med-surg units.

Each committee says, unit by unit, whether it reached consensus. 76 of the 199 plans name units where it did not, and those plans carry the members' and the chief executive's statements. 136 of the hospitals report a collective bargaining agreement covering clinical staff.