Share:
Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 4, 2020 08:38 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Kim L. Ward |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Protecting Our Nursing Home Residents |
| I am introducing legislation requiring certain safety protocols to be in place for nursing homes during an emergency disaster proclamation issued by the Governor and it relates to a communicable disease. The data has made it abundantly clear that our nursing home residents - our most vulnerable population in this current pandemic - have failed to be protected from COVID-19 as they should be. While nursing homes may now be following the Center for Disease Control’s guidance for them on COVID-19, they were not required to do so on Day 1 of the COVID-19 outbreak in Pennsylvania. Further, known COVID-19 patients may have been placed into nursing homes while still contagious rather than kept in hospitals that had empty beds. My legislation will require nursing homes immediately upon the issuance of an emergency proclamation by the Governor to follow the CDC’s guidelines specifically for them as it relates to the communicable disease that is the subject of the proclamation. Further, the bill will prohibit the admittance of any individual who is confirmed to have a communicable disease for which an emergency proclamation has been issued and is still within the timeframe of being considered infectious. |
Introduced as SB1189