Full Text of SB3108 93rd General Assembly
SB3108sam001 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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Sen. Don Harmon
Filed: 3/4/2004
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| AMENDMENT TO SENATE BILL 3108
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| AMENDMENT NO. ____ . Amend Senate Bill 3108
by replacing the | 3 |
| title with the
following:
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| "AN ACT concerning health care."; and
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| by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the | 6 |
| following:
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| "Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the | 8 |
| Nursing and
Hospital Worker Protection Act. | 9 |
| Section 5. Findings. The Legislature finds and declares all | 10 |
| of the
following:
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| (1) Health care services are becoming complex and it is | 12 |
| increasingly
difficult for patients to access integrated | 13 |
| services.
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| (2) Quality of patient care could be impacted by | 15 |
| staffing changes
implemented in response to managed care.
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| (3) To ensure the adequate protection of patients in | 17 |
| acute care
settings, it is essential that qualified | 18 |
| registered nurses be accessible and
available to meet the | 19 |
| needs of patients.
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| (4) The basic principles of staffing in the acute care | 21 |
| setting should be
based on the patient's care needs, the | 22 |
| severity of condition, services needed,
and the complexity | 23 |
| surrounding those services, as well as the experience |
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| level, clinical competencies, and education of the | 2 |
| licensed nurses providing patient care services. | 3 |
| Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act: | 4 |
| "Critical care unit" means a unit that is established to | 5 |
| safeguard and
protect
patients whose medical conditions are | 6 |
| severe enough to require continuous
monitoring
and complex | 7 |
| intervention by registered nurses.
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| "Employee" means any individual permitted to work by an | 9 |
| employer in an
occupation, including both individuals hired | 10 |
| directly by the company and those
hired
pursuant to a contract | 11 |
| with an outside entity, such as a staffing agency.
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| "Employer" means any person or entity licensed under the | 13 |
| Hospital Licensing
Act, or the parent or holding company of | 14 |
| such person or entity, who directly or
indirectly, or through | 15 |
| an agent or any other person, employs or exercises
control over
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| the wages, hours, or working conditions of any person.
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| "Health system" means a company (i) that is non-profit or | 18 |
| for-profit,
religious or
non-religious and (ii) that owns, | 19 |
| operates, or controls more than 2 hospitals.
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| "Hospital" means an entity licensed under the Hospital | 21 |
| Licensing Act.
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| "Hospital unit" means a critical care unit, burn unit, | 23 |
| labor and delivery
room,
postanesthesia service area, | 24 |
| emergency department, operating room, pediatric
unit, | 25 |
| step-down or intermediate care unit, specialty care unit, | 26 |
| telemetry unit,
general
medical care unit, subacute care unit, | 27 |
| and transitional inpatient care unit.
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| "Nurse" or "registered nurse" means a person licensed as a | 29 |
| registered professional nurse or licensed practical nurse | 30 |
| under the Nursing and Advanced Practice Nursing
Act.
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| "Organizational plan of nursing services" means a written | 32 |
| plan of direct care nursing personnel staffing requirements | 33 |
| that are appropriate to ensure all patients receive health care |
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| under normal and emergent circumstances. | 2 |
| "Violation" means a finding by a court, governmental | 3 |
| commission, or neutral
arbiter that wage and hour laws or | 4 |
| regulations were violated.
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| "Wage and hour laws or regulations" means any State or | 6 |
| federal law that
regulates the hours and wages paid or worked | 7 |
| by registered nurses. | 8 |
| Section 15. Registered nurse staff planning. Each hospital | 9 |
| shall develop and
implement an organizational plan of nursing | 10 |
| services. It shall be an
integral part of
the overall hospital | 11 |
| organizational plan and shall be available to all nursing
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| personnel.
Each hospital shall have a process that ensures the | 13 |
| consideration of input from
direct care
clinical staff in the | 14 |
| development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and
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| modification of the plan of nursing services. At least | 16 |
| one-third of the members of the
committee
charged with | 17 |
| developing, monitoring, evaluating, and modifying the plan | 18 |
| shall be
nurses
who provide
direct
patient care. The | 19 |
| organizational plan shall include:
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| (1) Competency validation for registered nurses based | 21 |
| on the statutorily
recognized duties and responsibilities | 22 |
| of the registered nurse and the standards
that are specific | 23 |
| to each patient care unit.
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| (2) A patient classification system that establishes | 25 |
| staffing requirements
by unit, patient, and shift; | 26 |
| determines staff resource allocation based on nursing
care | 27 |
| requirements for each shift and each unit; establishes a | 28 |
| method by which the
hospital validates the reliability of | 29 |
| the patient classification system; and
incorporates a | 30 |
| method by which the hospital improves patient outcomes | 31 |
| based on
clinical data.
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| (3) Written nursing service policies and procedures | 33 |
| based on current
standards of nursing practice and |
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| consistent with the nursing process, which
includes: | 2 |
| assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, intervention, | 3 |
| evaluation,
and
patient advocacy. The hospital | 4 |
| administration and the governing body shall
review and | 5 |
| approve all policies and procedures that relate to nursing | 6 |
| service
at least once every 3 years.
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| The organizational plan may include a schedule for meal | 8 |
| periods and rest
periods
different from those required by | 9 |
| Section 20 of this Act, provided that such
schedule has
been | 10 |
| approved by (and cannot be altered, suspended, or terminated | 11 |
| without the
consent
of) the committee charged with developing, | 12 |
| monitoring, evaluating, and
modifying the
organizational plan. | 13 |
| The Department of Public Health may establish by rule
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| additional
criteria for organizational plans.
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| Section 20. Rest periods. Every hospital shall permit each | 16 |
| employee to take
a
30-minute meal period and 2 10-minute rest | 17 |
| periods during the first 7 1/2
hours of work,
and an additional | 18 |
| 15 minutes of meal or break period time for each additional 2
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| hours
worked beyond the first 7 1/2 hours of work. If | 20 |
| circumstances require an
employee to work
during or through a | 21 |
| meal period or break period for which the employee would
have
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| received no compensation, then the employer shall pay the | 23 |
| employee for the time
worked
without compensation at one and | 24 |
| one-half times the employee's regular rate of
compensation. | 25 |
| This Section 20 does not apply to employees for whom meal and
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| break
periods are established through a collective bargaining | 27 |
| plan or pursuant to an
organizational plan schedule prepared in | 28 |
| accordance with Section 15 of this
Act. This
Section does not | 29 |
| apply to employees who monitor patients with developmental
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| disabilities or mental illness, or both, and who, in the course | 31 |
| of those
duties, are required
to be on-call during the entire | 32 |
| work period; provided, however, that such
employees shall
be | 33 |
| permitted to eat a meal or meals during the work period while |
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| continuing to
monitor
those patients. | 2 |
| Section 25. Violation of Act. The Director of Public | 3 |
| Health, after notice and opportunity for
hearing, may deny, | 4 |
| suspend, revoke, or place conditional provisions upon a
license | 5 |
| of a
hospital in any case in which the Director finds that | 6 |
| there has been a
substantial failure to
comply with the | 7 |
| provisions of this Act. | 8 |
| Section 30. Wage and hour provisions for registered nurses. | 9 |
| (a) Any employer that is a health system as defined in this | 10 |
| Act and commits
more than 500 violations of wage and hour laws | 11 |
| or regulations for registered
nurses
within a 3-year period | 12 |
| shall be fined up to 5% of gross hospital patient
revenues.
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| (b) The fine moneys shall be allocated to the Department of | 14 |
| Public Health
for
nursing scholarships awarded pursuant to the | 15 |
| Nursing Education Scholarship Law
in
addition to any other | 16 |
| funds set aside and appropriated for that purpose.
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| (c) The Attorney General shall determine if 500 violations | 18 |
| were committed
and
set the penalty based on the severity of the | 19 |
| violations.
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| Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | 21 |
| becoming law.".
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