House passes Patient and Resident Representation and Visitation Act
House Speaker David Ralston supported the bill from an emotional standpoint.
ATLANTA — A bill letting some family members visit Georgians in hospitals or nursing homes during health emergencies like coronavirus cleared the state House of Representatives Monday after an emotional debate.
The legislation, which passed 113-57 and now moves to the Georgia Senate, was revised numerous times as it went through the chamber’s Human Relations and Aging Committee to address safety concerns expressed by hospital and nursing home administrators.
Under the scaled-back version of the come in for one measure the hour a day … that person House passed, who can help them make “legal representatives” decisions and understand what they’re going through?” designated said Rep. Jesse Petrea, Rsavannah, to make decisions the Human Relations – which and Aging Committee’s could include chairman. “That’s what a family memthis bill does.” ber – would House Speaker David be allowed to visit a hospital Ralston, R-blue Ridge, supported patient for up to one the bill from an emotional hour a day. standpoint. In a rare
“Essential caregivers” – appearance in the well of the which also could include a House, Ralston described relative – could visit nursing how a young husband called home residents for up him last summer asking if to two hours daily. the speaker could help him
From a practical standpoint, gain permission to visit his supporters said legal dying wife, who was in the representatives or caregivers hospital. Ralston was powerless would pose no more of a to help. health threat to the patients “He said ‘goodbye’ on or residents they visit than Facetime,” Ralston told the many facility staff who his House colleagues. “I regularly come into their hope you will send a message rooms. … to the people whose
“If we can have the myriad pleas and hurt and heartbreak of staff coming and going we’re trying to touch into these facilities, why in some way.” can’t that one legal representative But the bill’s opponents argued hospitals and nursing homes have imposed necessary visiting restrictions to keep residents and patients safe.
“This is a feel-good, tugat-your-heartstrings bill,” said Rep. Debra Bazemore, D-riverdale, the House’s deputy minority whip. “However, I trust the medical professionals when they warn that to keep our loved ones healthy and safe, we will have to endure some precautions.”
Rep. Ed Setzler, R-ACworth, the bill’s chief sponsor, said he took the concerns of health-care professionals into account in working through the multiple revisions he made to strengthen the measure’s protections.
“We’ve taken all this feedback and boiled this down to the core essentials,” he said. “This bill gives the patient the right to have their next of kin at their bedside to make critical decisions.”