Missouri House wants limits on how far hospitals can go in blocking visitors to patients
The Missouri House advanced a bill Tuesday restricting the power of hospitals and nursing homes to limit patient visitors, a move driven by frustration with how health care facilities curtailed access during the pandemic.
The legislation authorizes patients to designate up to three people, in addition to a spouse or legal guardian, who must be granted access to hospitals and hospices. The spouse or guardian and at least one of the designated individuals must be allowed at the bedside at any given time. Children would have the right to have a parent or guardian present while receiving care.
Nursing home patients must be allowed “compassionate care” visitation with a family member, guardian or another person present when making decisions about end-of-life care. Nursing homes would still be allowed to limit the number of visitors per resident based on the size of the building and the space available, however.
The House approved the measure in a preliminary voice vote, with a final vote to send the bill to the Senate expected later this week.
Its passage in the House isn’t in doubt. House Majority Leader Dean Plocher, a St. Louis County Republican, has been pushing the legislation, partially in response to the experience of his father-in-law, who died in a hospital earlier this year after contracting COVID-19. He recounted how his father-in-law’s access to visitors was restricted throughout his time in the hospital, which he didn’t name during a floor speech.
“Families and loved ones and friends know the patient, can provide information to health care providers best. They are visitors that can help communicate and advocate for the person and share in their love,” Plocher said. “My father-in-law, Vince, needed that and his daughters wanted to be next to him, helping him and advocating for him.”
Since the pandemic began two years ago, many hospitals have restricted visitors in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within facilities. Restrictions have varied from hospital to hospital and have changed as infections spike and then dissipate in communities.
At Saint Luke’s in Kansas City, for example, two visitors per patient per day are allowed. COVID-19 patients aren’t permitted visitors except when nearing the end of their lives, however. University Health (formerly Truman Medical Centers) also doesn’t allow COVID-19 patients to have visitors and non-COVID inpatients are permitted one.
The Missouri Hospital Association testified against the bill during a January hearing. A spokesman for the organization didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Lawmakers opposed to the bill questioned whether it would hamper hospitals from ensuring safe environments if a pandemic deadlier than COVID-19 emerges.
“I will admit that this bill is coming from a good place, as it’s about our loved ones, but this bill is dangerous and it is a reckless bill,” said Rep. Michael Burton, a St. Louis County Democrat.
Burton offered an amendment to limit to one the number of people allowed to see a patient. The House defeated it 36-98 after Burton had pointed exchanges with legislators who brought up that he doesn’t have children.
“I don’t know how to say this without coming as crass, but as somebody who doesn’t have kids, I don’t expect you to understand what you’re putting parents into a situation – that is, you don’t allow any exemption for mom and dad to be there, and that’s the real issue I have with your amendment,” Rep. Shane Roden, a Cedar Hill Republican, said.
The House did adopt three amendments to limit the scope of the measure, however. They allow doctors to enter on patient charts that it would be harmful for the patient to have visitors. It also allows hospitals to continue restricting visitors to areas already typically off-limits, like operating rooms.
They make clear the bill doesn’t apply to prisons and facilities run by the Department of Mental Health. And hospitals don’t have to allow disruptive or violent visitors.
Rep. Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican and surgeon, offered the amendment allowing doctors to write that visitors would be harmful. He gave an example of a patient with severe burns as someone who shouldn’t have visitors because of the risk of infection.
The legislation, he said, is nuanced enough not to overburden health care providers.
“I don’t see how this in any way would affect my ability to provide care for a patient,” Patterson said.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 3:41 PM.
