Hospitals to AZ: Waive some patient protections

Facilities: ‘Burdensome’ rules interfere with care

Amid an escalating COVID-19 crisis, the president of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association wants immediate state action on waiving what she says are burdensome regulations on hospitals.

The request, made in a six-page July 1 letter to Dr. Cara Christ, the Arizona Department of Health Services director, includes removing some patient protections against abuse, neglect and discrimination.

In order to focus on providing “optimal care to patients in this public health emergency, hospitals need flexibility with compliance to the usual government-mandated requirements that apply during conventional times,” says the letter written by Ann-Marie Alameddin, president and chief operating officer for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

“This is to provide optimal patient care, and sometimes regulations get in the way of doing that,” Alameddin told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday.

After a Republic inquiry about the waivers, the state Health Department said on Tuesday evening it had issued blanket waivers for some, but not all, of the hospital association’s requests.

The flexibility hospitals want includes waivers that would allow the transport of patients in private vehicles, would enable hospitals to send some emergency room patients to lower levels of care like an urgent care, and would allow for placing adult and pediatric patients in the same room, if