For Rep. Brian Lorenz (R-Powell), the state’s healthcare crisis isn’t a partisan matter. It’s a personal one.
“I used to see my wife come home, how stressed out she was, how stressed out her friends were,” Lorenz said in an interview earlier this year.
His wife, Sue, was a nurse for decades and still works in healthcare. Lorenz got an even closer look at her workload years ago, when their daughters had a 13-week-stay in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“Nurses are on the front line,” Lorenz said. “They’re the eyes and ears of the doctors, they’re the ones that have that interaction with the families.”
He decided to introduce legislation to address the staffing issues that nurses across the state reported experiencing.
Ratio bills hit roadblocks
Under his House Bill 535, hospitals would have to convene a hospital-wide committee, with registered nurses serving as the majority of its members.
Every two years, the committees would draft required nursing staff levels and ratios. Any hospitals not following those rules could be subject to state fines.
“It gives the frontline nurses real decision-making power,” Lorenz said. “We’re making them be in this position of advocate and wear all these different hats, but they’re not having a fair seat at the table, and that’s just not equitable.”
HB 535 was drafted, he said, to work side-by-side with the Democratic-led House Bill 521, which would dictate statewide staffing ratios.
But as the close of another session comes quickly, it’s unlikely either will move before December — when all legislation either goes to Gov. Mike DeWine or dies.
Ohio Nurses Association executive director Rick Lucas said he believes the lack of action comes down to one factor: money. Lucas has lobbied lawmakers on staffing shortage issues for some time.
“They are definitely sympathetic and they definitely recognize there’s a problem,” he said. “The problem is, the hospital lobby comes in behind us, and they’re in there greasing the skids against us.”
The Ohio Hospital Association declined a request for an interview. A spokesperson wrote in an email that staffing ratio mandates “increase stress on a health care system already facing an escalating workforce shortage.”
Some strides made last session
Still, the legislature has made some strides in protecting healthcare personnel.
In 2025, a new anti-violence law went into effect requiring hospitals to create plans to prevent violence against healthcare workers, including by posting notices against aggressive behavior. The proponents of that law included Republicans and Democrats, the OHA and the ONA.
Still, Lucas said the state needs to further regulate certain industries.
“You wouldn’t want to get into an airplane without the government setting safety regulations, and letting the Boeing CEO decide what was safe, or we’re going to be seeing things like with Alaska Airlines, with the door flying off the plane,” he said. “That’s not what we want to happen, but that’s what’s happening in the hospital: the door’s flying off the plane all the time.”
If the bill dies in December, Lorenz said over text that he will “most certainly” reintroduce it next year.
