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AL HB3
Bill
Status
3/9/2023
Primary Sponsor
Debbie Wood
Click for details
AI Summary
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Health care facilities must adopt visitation policies within 30 days that include infection control protocols, visitor screening procedures, and designation of staff responsible for enforcement.
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Residents, clients, and patients have the right to visit with any individual of their choosing during facility visiting hours, and may designate an essential caregiver who receives at least two hours of daily visitation.
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Facilities cannot require proof of vaccination, prohibit consensual physical contact between visitors and patients, or impose safety policies more stringent than those for staff.
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Visitation must be allowed in specific circumstances including end-of-life situations, childbirth, pediatric care, major medical decisions, emotional distress, and when patients need assistance eating or speaking.
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Facilities must submit visitation policies to the Alabama Department of Public Health upon licensure application or renewal, and the department must create a webpage explaining requirements and accepting complaints; emergency rules cannot suspend or modify these provisions.
Legislative Description
Relating to health care facilities; to add Section 22-21-437 to the Code of Alabama 1975; to require health care facilities to adopt certain visitation policies; to provide that patients have a right to certain visitation; to allow patients to designate an essential caregiver and to guarantee that caregiver certain visitation rights; to prohibit a health care facility from adopting a visitation policy that is more stringent than certain employee policies; to prohibit a health care facility from requiring visitors to show proof of vaccination or from prohibiting consensual physical contact between visitors and patients; to provide for the circumstances in which patients may not be denied visitors; to require health care facilities to provide visitation policies to the Department of Public Health; to require the Department of Public Health to develop a mechanism for complaints; to prohibit any suspension or modification by emergency rule or order; and to repeal Sections 22-21-430 through 22-21-436, Code of Alabama 1975, relating to hospital visitation during a public health emergency.
Last Action
Introduced and Referred to House Health
3/9/2023