SB 1385 - Under this act, no employee or contractor of a licensed or registered health care facility shall be required to physically engage with a person exhibiting violent tendencies if there is a reasonable fear that such engagement shall result in bodily harm to the employee. No health care facility shall require an employee or contractor to become certified, or otherwise to participate, in training that limits physical control or restraint of violent patients to specific holds or positions. No agency or department of this state or accrediting body shall require a health care facility to mandate such training. No health care facility, or employee or contractor of such, shall, if acting in good faith and without gross negligence, be held liable for damages arising out of an incident in which a violent patient who poses a risk of bodily harm to employees, contractors, or bystanders escapes or flees the custody of the facility; provided that such patient shall not have been known to the facility and employees or contractors as being diagnosed with dementia, acute brain injury, acute non-drug-related psychosis, or an intellectual or developmental disability, or who is a minor chid.
Any licensed nurse may terminate without consequence his or her participation in a patient's care if the nurse is subject to assault or battery by the patient or an individual acting on behalf of the patient; provided the patient is of sound mind or is otherwise intoxicated at the time of the assault or battery. The health care facility shall be responsible for assigning a new nurse, as needed, to that patient until care is terminated.
An individual who expresses an intent to harm themselves, who is not in need of emergency medical attention, and who has been charged with a criminal offense and is in the custody of a law enforcement officer shall first be evaluated at the nearest appropriate prison or jail. If admission to a hospital is recommended following the evaluation and an inpatient bed is available at an accepting hospital, then the individual may be transported to the accepting hospital. Evaluations under this provision may be conducted through telehealth.
A health care facility that violates the provisions of this act shall be subject to license or registration revocation or suspension. Accrediting entities that violate the provisions of this act shall not be recognized as valid accrediting entities by any agency or department of this state.
SARAH HASKINS