Nursing shortage forces L.A. County to hike temp pay.

JUST how bad is the state's nursing shortage?

So bad that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, in an effort to attract more nurse anesthetists to county hospitals, voted this month to hike the amount paid to the registries that supply them--$130 an hour for the night shift, a jump of up to 37 percent.

Registries provide nurses who work on a casual basis to fill in for permanent staff. The nurses typically get two-thirds of the billing charge, with the cost of a full-time equivalent nurse-anesthetist at $270,400 per year.

The board's move drew squawks from the Service Employees International Union, which has been seeking a new contract for the county's permanent nurse work force. Union officials say that a generous contract would attract permanent nurses at a lower cost, but county officials say that with or without a contract, they would still need higher-cost registry nurses.

Jan Emerson, a spokeswoman for the California Healthcare Association, the state's hospital trade group, said the supervisors' action typifies the problems all hospital administrators face as they try to deal with an acute nursing shortage.

"The hospitals would love to hire those nurses but they can't find them," said Emerson. "We don't have enough nurses in the state."

The nursing shortage was the key reason cited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in relaxing California's landmark nurse staffing law that sets minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

Hospitals administrators complain that the shortage makes it impossible for most facilities to comply with the law. The governor took action on specific trouble spots for the industry: requiting fill-ins for nurses on short breaks and requiring compliance even when emergency rooms are hit with a flood of patients. The governor also delayed a further tightening of the law that was set to go into effect this January.

The state's Office of Administrative Law upheld the emergency action on Nov. 12 for the next 120 days, but now the state must consider public comment on the matter.

The California Nurses Association, which sponsored the law and contends it has helped attract nurses to California, is planning a Dec. 1 rally at the state Capitol. It's also considering legal action.

"We clearly hold the governor and the hospital industry responsible for putting patient safety at risk," said CNA spokesman Charles Idelson. "There are consequences for these actions."