pretty much no one.
Something has to give. I've been hospitalized twice since April. The first time I sat incapacitated (vertigo so severe I could not open my eyes without vomiting) in the "inner waiting room," which was a dark room separate from the regular waiting room. I sat with my back to the staff who were supposed to be keeping an eye on me. I could easily have died without them noticing for hours.
I arrived at about 6:00 PM. The second and last time any nursing staff checked on me was 10:00 PM. At about 3:00 AM I needed to go to the bathroom. I sent my spouse to find them and let them know, since they did not give me any means to summon help. (The two others in the "inner waiting room" had no one with them, and would have had no means to get help.) Their response to my spouse was: She can go. My spouse informed them that I needed assistance since I could not open my eyes or move without vomiting. They came, reluctantly. I told them to treat me as if I was blind (tell me how many steps, which way), since I couldn't open my eyes. They were incapable of doing that - so I had to open my eyes. I started throwing up immediately. When I was done, they draped the three blankets which had been keeping me warm (in the 60 degree room) around my neck and deposited me back in the "inner waiting room" and left.
My spouse went to the main desk again and asked for the nurse to come and give me something for the nausea so I could stop throwing up long enough to reposition the blankets around me so I didn't freeze. The nurse refused because I hadn't been seen by a doctor yet, so there was nothing she could do. This is despite having drawn blood twice - so someone obviously was capable of writing some orders.
About 2 hours later I was finally seen in the ER and admitted. Some of the tests they were doing were to test for a stroke or a heart attack, both of which need attention sooner than 11 hours after presenting in the ER. The nursing care did not improve much once I got to the floor.
This was at a Cleveland Clinic hospital - not a second or third class institution.
I have compared notes with friends who have been hospitalized in the same time period (one of whom is a nurse), and found their experiences to be similar - also in institutions with national, if not international, reputations for quality.
I am not blaming the nurses. The reality is that most hospitals are critically understaffed. Everyone is pushed to the breaking point - and can't do any more than they are currently doing. Patients are at risk even with nurses are on duty, and will continue to be at risk until the critical staff shortage is resolved. If it takes a strike to solve the problem - temporarily having no nurses isn't a heck of a lot worse than the current level of staffing.
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