If passed, Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg’s bill would grant one visitor of a patient’s choosing the right to visit that patient in a nursing home or hospital during a pandemic.
Visitation bill kept alive amid emotional stories from lawmakers
Emotional stories from Democratic lawmakers who lost loved ones to COVID-19 were enough to garner a preliminary voice of approval March 25 on a hospital visitation bill from Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling.
Senate Bill 53 was approved on a voice vote in the state Senate and is currently awaiting a final vote. Sonnenberg told this reporter he believes the vote will be very close.
The bill would grant one visitor of a patient’s choosing the right to visit that patient in a nursing home or hospital during a pandemic. Those facilities would still have the right to enact policies on restrictions based on guidelines from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including requiring waivers and use of personal protective equipment. However, the facility cannot ban visitors solely based on a pandemic, according to the bill.
Sonnenberg told this reporter that he’s listened to the medical community on their concerns and incorporated their requests, save for killing the bill itself, including limitations on visitation, up to and including blocking visitors if PPE isn’t available, waiver from liability in case a visitor catches an illness, and protection from verbal and physical abuse.
“They still have the power to screen and put procedures in place,” Sonnenberg said. “They just can’t keep one family member from a patient. If I have to wear a hazmat suit, I’ll do it in order to hold my wife’s hand if she needs me,” he said.
But it was stories from an unexpectedly long list of Democratic senators in support of the bill that made the difference Friday.
Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont, who voted against the bill in its Feb. 1 committee hearing, changed to a “yes” for the bill’s final vote. Hospitals and health care workers must be protected, but she added that Sonnenberg had worked hard to address the concerns of the medical community. “We’ll have families able to see patients,” she said.
Another changed vote came from Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail. “I read it wrong,” she told the Senate. “I began to better comprehend what the bill said,” and said that the policy is a good one.
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