Patient visitation measure advances

An Arkansas Senate committee on Monday advanced a bill that is aimed at guaranteeing visits to lonely, pandemic-restricted patients.

In a voice vote, the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee recommended Senate approval of House Bill 1061, by Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-East End. The bill would create the No Patient Left Alone Act.

“We all know we’ve seen everything change in the past year and I think one of the harshest parts of what we have witnessed is what it looks like for people in hospitals and nursing homes and facilities,” said Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, who is the bill’s Senate sponsor.

“People have been unable to see their loved ones,” she said. “People have died alone. They have laid in the hospital bed alone, and it really is one of the great tragedies of covid-19, outside of people contracting covid.”

The bill would guarantee limited visitation while also requiring precautions to prevent the spread of disease.

The measure includes specific provisions to keep abusive family members from exploiting the proposed law. Another provision allows up to three family members to stay, one at a time, with a patient with a disability that makes it difficult for the patient to cooperate with his medical team or make medical decisions.

The bill would ensure a parent can stay with a child during a treatment unless there is a medical reason to be apart, such as in surgery.

It also would require visiting family members to comply with protocols to ensure against the spread of disease. In another provision, a patient would have the right to forbid family visitors from visiting in case that patient wants to avoid health risks to them.