Legislation allowing visits from caregivers and legal representatives including family members of Georgians in hospitals or nursing homes during emergencies like COVID-19 advanced in the state House of Representatives on Monday.
The bill is a scaled-back version of a measure brought by Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, that initially required hospitals and nursing homes to give broad in-person access for patients and residents to visit with family members.
After some pushback last month, Setzler tailored his bill to allow only legal representatives that can include next of kin who are designated to make decisions by long-term hospital patients to visit up to an hour a day during statewide emergencies.
It would also let caregivers – which could include a family member – to visit with loved ones in nursing homes for two hours a day during pandemic-scale emergencies. Caregivers and legal representatives would have to follow all safety protocols set by the hospital or nursing home.
Setzler’s bill originally proposed allowing visits from family members without the requirement for them to be designated caregivers or legal representatives, a broader rule for in-person visits than his overhauled measure now seeks.
“The core of this bill is about patient representation,” Setzler said at a House Human Relations and Aging Committee hearing on Monday.
The committee approved the measure and sent it to the full House.
Setzler’s bill has faced some opposition from hospital and nursing home industry representatives who worry an influx of visitors could weaken safety protocols and might run afoul of federal rules on allowing visitors during emergencies.
Currently, Georgia allows visitation at nursing homes and long-term care facilities based on levels of COVID-19 positivity rates in a given community.
Despite its good intentions to connect patients with loved ones during tough times, the bill could create legal turmoil over visitors defying safety protocols and potentially hand too much power to designated representatives, said Anna Adams, senior vice president of government relations for the Georgia Hospital Association.
“This bill allows the patient representative to choose the essential visitor without the patient’s consent,” Adams said. “That is incredibly concerning.”
Democrats on the committee also opposed the bill, calling it too vague to ensure confidence visitors could enter hospitals and nursing homes during emergency situations without causing major problems.
“The vagueness of ‘reasonable standard,’ that doesn’t work for me,” said Rep. Donna McCleod, D-Lawrenceville. “If it’s not clear, we are going to cause chaos.”
Republicans, who hold a majority on the committee, pressed for passage of Setzler’s bill to make sure ailing loved ones could spend perhaps their final days in contact with their families.
“I just want to know how long we can wait for loved ones to see their family members,” said Rep. Charlice Byrd, R-Woodstock. “They have deteriorated, they have passed and I think we need to make the decision to get on with this. … This is seriously ridiculous for us not to pass this bill.”
Setzler said he agreed to the changes despite his wish and those of many supporters to broaden access to loved ones in hospitals or nursing-home care, with the aim of avoiding the grief of family members only being able to communicate by phone or live video.
“Is one hour a day for visiting adequate?” Setzler said last month during a hearing on the bill. “I struggle with that. It’s my personal opinion that it’s inadequate. But zero [hours] is unacceptable.”
Setzler has also said the bill would likely apply to future pandemics and emergencies rather than COVID-19, given it would not take effect until July, and the bulk of Georgians are predicted to have received vaccines by then.
Nearly 820,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, with roughly 189,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,148 Georgians.
This story has been updated to clarify who can be designated as a legal representative.