Youngstown Daily Legal News

Bill would allow for lay caregivers for those discharged from hospitals

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 16, 2016

A Republican state lawmaker seeks to make uniform a process by which a lay caregiver can be designated and appropriately informed before any hospitalized Ohioan is discharged from treatment.

House of Representatives Assistant Majority Whip Sarah LaTourette of Chesterland recently introduced House Bill 611 for consideration by fellow lawmakers.

The bill would enact several new sections of the Ohio Revised Code to provide for the designation of a lay person to provide after-care to a hospital inpatient and participate in discharge planning.

Enactment of Section 3727.71 would require that a hospital shall offer any patient at least 18 years of age or the patient's guardian an opportunity to designate a lay caregiver for the patient.

The offer shall be made subsequent to the patient's admission but before his discharge. Special language in the bill, specifies that the designation process may be delayed for unconscious or otherwise incapacitated patients.

The aim of the bill is to assist patients with after-care and benefit the healing process.

According to the bill's language, after-care is defined as the assistance provided by a lay caregiver to a patient in the patient's residence after the patient's discharge, including only the caregiving needs of the patient at the time of discharge.

The provision would not apply to patients discharged to another hospital, a nursing home, residential care facility, county or district home, veterans' home, hospice care program or pediatric respite care program, a freestanding inpatient rehabilitation facility or any similar facility.

In addition to providing a description of all after-care tasks to be performed by the lay caregiver, a discharge plan may include:

• Contact information for the health care providers or providers of community or long-term care services that the hospital and the patient or guardian believe are necessary for successful implementation of the discharge plan;

• The lay caregiver's name, address, telephone number, electronic mail address, and relationship to the patient; and

• Any other information the hospital believes is necessary for successful implementation of the discharge plan.

One important provision of the legislation absolves an attending physician of liability in a tort action or other civil action for any development that allegedly arises out of the physician's determination of whether to include a lay caregiver in after-care instruction.

The bill's intent should not interfere with the authority of a patient's attorney- in-fact nor does it create a right of action against a hospital or an employee, agent, or contractor of the hospital, language detailed.

Neither should it create a liability for a hospital or an employee, agent, or contractor of the hospital; limit, impair, or supersede any right or remedy that a person has under any other statute, rule, regulation, or the common law of this state; or alter the obligations of an insurer under a health insurance policy, contract, or plan.

As of publication, HB 611 had not been assigned to committee for hearing.

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