Patient visitation.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not specify that hospitals will be allowed to ask visitors to get tested, only to adhere to PPE protocols.

Patient Visitation Rights

AB-92, also known as Dianne's Law, expands patient visitation rights to include children and grandparents of the patient. It requires health facilities to develop safety protocols for visitors while allowing visits in end-of-life situations unless the patient objects.

What This Bill Does

• Expands who can visit a patient in a hospital or other healthcare facility to include the patient's children and grandparents.
• Requires hospitals to create special visiting rules if regular visitor access needs to be limited due to health or safety reasons, but still allows visits as much as possible.
• Does not allow hospitals to stop visitors from seeing patients at the end of life unless the patient says they don't want it.
• Allows hospitals to ask visitors to follow certain safety rules like wearing masks and getting tested if needed.
• Requires hospitals to give visitors personal protective equipment (PPE) for visits during end-of-life situations.

Who It Names or Affects

• Patients in healthcare facilities
• Visitors of patients, including children and grandparents
• Healthcare facility staff

Terms To Know

End-of-life situation

A time when a patient is near death and needs special care.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Equipment like masks, gloves, and gowns used to protect people from getting sick.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how hospitals will be funded for providing PPE to visitors.
• It is unclear if the bill will change how much it costs local agencies or schools due to new rules.
• The exact details of alternate visitation protocols are not defined in the summary.

Official Summary Text

AB 92, as introduced, Gallagher.
Patient visitation.
Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of health facilities, as defined. Existing law requires a health facility to allow a patient’s domestic partner, the children of the patient’s domestic partner, and the domestic partner of the patient’s parent or child to visit unless no visitors are allowed, the facility reasonably determines that the presence of a particular visitor would endanger the health or safety of a patient, member of the health facility staff, or other visitor to the health facility, or would significantly disrupt the operations of a facility, or the patient has indicated to the health facility staff that the patient does not want this person to visit. A violation of this provision is a misdemeanor.
This bill, Dianne’s Law, would require a health facility to allow specified
persons to visit, including the patient’s children and grandparents. The bill would require the health facility to develop alternate visitation protocols, if circumstances require the health facility to restrict visitor access to the facility due to health or safety concerns, that allow visitation to the greatest extent possible while maintaining patient, visitor, and staff health and safety. Notwithstanding the requirement mentioned above, the bill would prohibit a health facility from prohibiting in-person visitation in end-of-life situations unless the patient has indicated to the health facility staff that the patient does not want this person to visit, as specified, and would authorize a health facility to require visitors to adhere to personal protective equipment and testing protocols not greater than those required of facility staff for the duration of their visit. The bill would also require the facility to provide personal protective equipment and testing resources to each visitor for a patient in
an end-of-life situation, to the extent that those resources have been made readily available to the facility by state or local entities for that purpose. By expanding an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF