Bill > S678

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the "New Jersey No Patient Left Alone Act." The bill provides that, within 30 days of the bill's effective date, each facility is to establish visitation policies and procedures, as a condition of licensure. Under the bill, "facility" means a community residence for the developmentally disabled, hospice, long-term care facility, or veterans' home, as each of those terms are defined in the bill. The policies and procedures are to: (1) establish infection control and education policies for facility visitors, including screening, personal protective equipment, and other infection control protocols for facility visitors; (2) establish rules for the length of visits and the number of visitors, which rules are to meet or exceed the visitation standards established in the bill; (3) designate a person to ensure that staff adheres to the policies and procedures; (4) not be more stringent than the policies and procedures that apply to facility staff; (5) forbid staff from asking visitors to disclose vaccination status or requiring visitors to submit proof of any vaccination or immunization; and (6) allow consensual physical contact between visitors and residents, clients, or patients. Under the bill, a facility resident, client, or patient is to be permitted to receive visitors who are domestic partners, essential caregivers, family members, friends, guardians, persons licensed to provide financial, legal, or tax services, or religious or spiritual advisors. A facility resident, client, or patient is to be permitted in-person visitation for at least two hours on a daily basis. In addition, a resident, client, or patient of a health care facility licensed by the Department of Health, who is terminally ill or otherwise near death, is to be permitted to receive visitors who are domestic partners, essential caregivers, family members, friends, guardians, persons licensed to provide financial, legal, or tax services, or religious or spiritual advisors. The resident, client, or patient is to be permitted unlimited in-person visitation on a daily basis. The provisions outlined in this paragraph are to apply irrespective of any declared public health emergency or state of emergency, law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary. A facility may require a visitor to agree in writing to the facility's policies and procedures as a condition of visitation. A facility may suspend the in-person visitation privileges of a visitor if the visitor violates the facility's policies and procedures. Within 24 hours of establishing the policies and procedures, a facility is to make the policies and procedures easily accessible on the homepage of the facility's Internet website. The Departments of Health and Human Services are to dedicate a stand-alone page on the Internet website of each department that explains the visitation requirements provided for in this bill. Finally, the bill amends N.J.S.A.26:2H-12.22, which pertains to the visitation of a domestic partner who is a patient in a health care facility licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.), to ensure that the provisions of this statute do not affect the provisions of this bill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Kristin Corrado (R)*,  Bob Singer (R)*,  Jim Holzapfel (R), 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document