Public Act 097-0122
 
HB1684 EnrolledLRB097 09868 RPM 50025 b


  
    AN ACT concerning health facilities.
  
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:
  


 
    Section 5. The Hospital Licensing Act is amended  by 
changing Section 6.25 as follows:
 
    (210 ILCS 85/6.25)
    Sec. 6.25. Safe patient handling policy.
    (a) In this Section:
    "Health care worker" means an individual providing direct 
patient care services who may be required to lift, transfer, 
reposition, or move a patient.
    "Nurse" means an advanced practice nurse, a registered 
nurse, or a licensed practical nurse licensed under the Nurse 
Practice Act.
    "Safe lifting equipment and accessories" means mechanical 
equipment designed to lift, move, reposition, and transfer 
patients, including, but not limited to, fixed and portable 
ceiling lifts, sit-to-stand lifts, slide sheets and boards, 
slings, and repositioning and turning sheets.
    "Safe lifting team" means at least 2 individuals who are 
trained in the use of both safe lifting techniques and safe 
lifting equipment and accessories, including the 
responsibility for knowing the location and condition of such 
equipment and accessories. 
    (b) A hospital must adopt and ensure implementation of a 
policy to identify, assess, and develop strategies to control 
risk of injury to patients and nurses and other health care 
workers associated with the lifting, transferring, 
repositioning, or movement of a patient. The policy shall 
establish a process that, at a minimum, includes all of the 
following:
        (1) Analysis of the risk of injury to patients and 
    nurses and other health care workers posted by the patient 
    handling needs of the patient populations served by the 
    hospital and the physical environment in which the patient 
    handling and movement occurs.
        (2) Education and training of nurses and other direct 
    patient care providers in the identification, assessment, 
    and control of risks of injury to patients and nurses and 
    other health care workers during patient handling and on 
    safe lifting policies and techniques and current lifting 
    equipment.
        (3) Evaluation of alternative ways to reduce risks 
    associated with patient handling, including evaluation of 
    equipment and the environment.
        (4) Restriction, to the extent feasible with existing 
    equipment and aids, of manual patient handling or movement 
    of all or most of a patient's weight except for emergency, 
    life-threatening, or otherwise exceptional circumstances.
        (5) Collaboration with and an annual report to the 
    nurse staffing committee.
        (6) Procedures for a nurse to refuse to perform or be 
    involved in patient handling or movement that the nurse in 
    good faith believes will expose a patient or nurse or other 
    health care worker to an unacceptable risk of injury.
        (7) Submission of an annual report to the hospital's 
    governing body or quality assurance committee on 
    activities related to the identification, assessment, and 
    development of strategies to control risk of injury to 
    patients and nurses and other health care workers 
    associated with the lifting, transferring, repositioning, 
    or movement of a patient.
        (8) In developing architectural plans for construction 
    or remodeling of a hospital or unit of a hospital in which 
    patient handling and movement occurs, consideration of the 
    feasibility of incorporating patient handling equipment or 
    the physical space and construction design needed to 
    incorporate that equipment.

        (9) Fostering and maintaining patient safety, dignity, 
    self-determination, and choice, including the following 
    policies, strategies, and procedures:
            (A) the existence and availability of a trained 
        safe lifting team;
            (B) a policy of advising patients of a range of 
        transfer and lift options, including adjustable 
        diagnostic and treatment equipment, mechanical lifts, 
        and provision of a trained safe lifting team;
            (C) the right of a competent patient, or guardian 
        of a patient adjudicated incompetent, to choose among 
        the range of transfer and lift options, subject to the 
        provisions of subparagraph (E) of this paragraph (9);
            (D) procedures for documenting, upon admission and 
        as status changes, a mobility assessment and plan for 
        lifting, transferring, repositioning, or movement of a 
        patient, including the choice of the patient or 
        patient's guardian among the range of transfer and lift 
        options; and
            (E) incorporation of such safe lifting procedures, 
        techniques, and equipment as are consistent with 
        applicable federal law. 
(Source: P.A. 96-389, eff. 1-1-10; 96-1000, eff. 7-2-10.)