June 18, 2009

Markell Signs Legislation Guaranteeing Patients Can Choose Their Visitors

DOVER – Governor Jack Markell signed legislation Thursday allowing patients to receive visitors of their choosing while they are hospitalized or housed at a nursing home.
 
House Bill 112, sponsored by Rep. Helene M. Keeley, D-Wilmington South, allows competent adults to receive visits in a hospital, nursing home or nursing facility from any person they choose. The law does not overrule a facility’s visitation policies that are based on the patient’s medical condition, visitation hours or a court order. Facilities will be required to honor the patient’s advance health care directives regarding visitation.
 
“Residents who are hospitalized or are living in a nursing home should be able to make their own decision about who can visit them,” Governor Markell said. “We all have someone whom we consider as close to us as any family member and would like to have visit us.”
 
Rep. Keeley said she heard from several residents that close friends or extended family members were not able to visit their loved ones in the hospital or at a nursing home because their policies limit visitors to immediate family.
 
“While I understand the reason for such policies, there needs to be some flexibility for patients to decide who can visit them,” Rep. Keeley said. “Many times, patients don’t have any immediate family able to visit and rely on friends or extended family to be that support network. This will let the patients identify those people to give them visitation rights.”
 
HB 112, which the House and Senate unanimously passed, eliminates any inconsistency with existing visitation rights in licensed long-term care facilities while requiring that the facilities adhere to advance health care directives and powers of attorney. It also makes clear that any person who presents a threat to staff of a facility would be denied visitation.