General hospitals licensed in accordance with the Health Care Facilities Planning Act are required to publicly disclose direct care staffing levels within their facilities and to report staffing-level information to the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH). Princeton Health began submitting hospital staffing ratios to the DOH in June 2008.
Under the law:
- General hospitals are required to post direct patient care staffing levels in visible and accessible locations within specified areas.
- General hospitals must submit aggregate data on a monthly basis to the DOH.
- The DOH must make the information available to the public on a quarterly basis.
It is the responsibility of each hospital to accurately calculate monthly averages from the daily posting forms. The DOH will then combine the monthly averages reported by the hospitals into a quarterly report that will be available on the HPCS (Hospital Patient Care Staffing System) website.
