Community Health & Wellness

Expanded hospital staffing law begins to go into effect

Posted on June 26th, 2025 By: Conor Wilson

Washington hospitals must begin monitoring how often they are in compliance with staffing plans next month as part of an effort to ease burnout and address worker shortages.

At each hospital, a committee that included both hospital management and rank-and-file employees created staffing plans at the start of this year. The plans outline the minimum number of employees assigned to be in each unit at each hour of the day.

Beginning in 2027, hospitals must submit staffing reports to the Department of Health twice per year. They could face investigations and penalties for being out of compliance more than 20% of the time.

The plans and tracking are part of the state’s expanded hospital staffing law that was approved two years ago.

Local hospitals mum about staffing levels

Officials hope this model will improve the health of the industry at a time when recruiting and retaining staff has become more challenging. Across the state, industry groups and others report major workforce shortages and a dwindling pool of applicants.

A spokesperson for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, owner of both hospitals on the Kitsap Peninsula, did not say if they were prepared to comply with their staffing plan.

In an email, they wrote the hospitals implemented a new plan in January that meets state law and is geared toward enhancing patient care. The spokesperson declined to provide specific numbers on staffing levels, or vacancies at either St. Michael Medical Center or St. Anthony Hospital.

Rosie Apalisok, vice president and chief nursing officer at St. Michael, said the hospital had a 95% retention rate for nurses over the last year. St. Michael “closed the gap of open positions significantly” with a “promising pipeline” of candidates applying for open roles, Apalisok said.

Nurses search for new contract

The expanded staffing law is being implemented as St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale and the union representing its nurses continue a monthslong negotiation on a new contract.

Leadership of union UFCW 3000 paints a different picture of the staffing situation. The union wrote on its website that the hospital faces an “ongoing staffing crisis.” It is asking St. Michael to guarantee premium pay when nurses work in understaffed units.

“The hospital execs like to claim that we’re all staffed up, but we’re seeing call-outs leaving some units below the staffing threshold, and we’re seeing nurses picking up extra shifts,” Rich Smith, a UFCW 3000 spokesperson wrote in a statement to Gig Harbor Now.

“We hope the new staffing committees can find ways to improve the staffing crisis, but the bottom line is that these execs need to substantially invest in workers and patients or else we’ll continue to see staffing levels that prevent us from delivering the level of care our patients deserve.”

Asked about the statement, Apalisok said they had been working with the union to reach a fair deal.

She said management has offered a more than 10% wage increase over three years, incentives for nurses who accept last-minute shifts, a program to support consistent meal and rest breaks and safety and security improvements.

The two sides will hold an 11th bargaining session on June 28, Smith said. The nurses’ contract expires at the end of July.

Layoffs impact VMFH

Staffing situations are also muddied by the financial situation facing VMFH and other hospitals in Washington.

VMFH, which owns 10 hospitals in the Puget Sound region, has been in a budget deficit since the pandemic. The company estimates it will also take an additional $30 million loss annually as a result of new state taxes and a cap on reimbursement rates for state employees.

Amid the financial uncertainty, VMFH announced earlier this month it was cutting back on virtual services. The decision impacts roughly 200 employees across its system, about half of whom will lose their job, interim President Chad Melton wrote in a statement. The news was first reported by the Seattle Times.

“To protect access to care long term, we are realigning resources and improving operational efficiency. This includes transitioning several virtual services and administrative functions,” Melton wrote. “These are difficult and necessary decisions to ensure we can continue meeting the needs of our patients.”

The hospital declined to say if layoffs would impact services on the peninsula or if more layoffs were expected.