House Committee advances legislation guaranteeing that patients can have visitors

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Harold Sachs and family Photo Credit: Facebook

On Wednesday, the Alabama House Healthcare Committee voted to advance legislation that would guarantee that family members may spend time with their sick and dying loved ones in an Alabama hospital or nursing home.

Senate Bill 113 (SB113) is sponsored by State Sen. Garlan Gudger. It is being carried in the House by Rep. Debbie Wood.

The bill replaces last year’s patient visitation law.

“Last year, we passed House Bill 521,” Wood said. “The problem was we still had family members who were not able to get into see their loved ones.”

“Sen. Gudger worked hard to come up with another one with teeth in it,” Wood explained.

The synopsis states, “Under existing law, a health care facility must follow certain requirements related to visitation for patients, clients, or residents. This bill would repeal existing law related to healthcare facility visitation and would require healthcare facilities to adopt visitation policies and procedures that meet certain standards. This bill would provide that residents, clients, or patients of a health care facility have the right to visit with any individual of their choosing during the facility’s visiting hours.”

“This bill would allow a resident, client, or patient to designate an essential caregiver and would require healthcare facilities to allow essential caregivers at least two hours of daily visitation. This bill would require that any safety-related policies or procedures may not be more stringent than those established for the health care facility’s staff. This bill would prohibit a healthcare facility from requiring visitors to submit proof of vaccination or from prohibiting consensual physical contact between a visitor and a resident, client, or patient. This bill would allow a health care facility to suspend in-person visitation of a specific visitor if a visitor violates the facility’s policies and procedures.”

Our healthcare facilities are the greatest asset we have,” Wood said.

The bill also defines “end of life.”

“End of life means something totally different to different people,” Wood explained. “I would think end of life would mean the last few weeks of life, but to a healthcare facility, end of life might mean the last fifty minutes.”

Wood explained that the substitute bill carves out an exception for psychiatric care facilities from the visitation requirements if a doctor signs that the patient cannot receive visitors.

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, hospitals and nursing homes banned visitors to try to halt the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Those measures largely failed, as did vaccine requirements once the vaccine was commercially accessible. Thousands of Alabamians died, many of them believing their family had abandoned them because of the strict limits against visiting the sick and seniors in nursing homes.

“We also learn when we go through something traumatic,” Wood said.

State Rep. Arnold Mooney said, “Thank you both for your work on this.”

“We are a state that respects the dignity of life,” Mooney continued.

Rep. Pebblin Warren asked, “Was there any conversation or dialogue with the institutions? The Hospital Association and the Nursing Home Association.”

“This bill is a joint effort of everyone to make sure that we have policies and procedures that we

The bill is named after Harold Sachs – the longtime Chief of Staff of the Alabama Republican Party. Sachs was diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia in late 2020. His condition deteriorated quickly, and after a few weeks, he passed away. Sachs’ family – like many Alabama families- were not allowed to visit Harold in the COVID-19 ward.

“They have been instrumental in pushing this issue,” Wood said.

Rep. Paul Lee. is the Chairman of the Healthcare Committee

Rep. Mooney made a motion to give the bill a favorable report. The favorable report motion passed unanimously.

SB113 has already passed the Senate on a 33 to 0 vote. It could be taken up by the full House of Representatives as early as Thursday.

Wednesday is the sixth legislative day of the 2023 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.

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