Senate passes ‘No Patient Left Alone Act’ | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is CJ Staff.



    Senate Bill 191, "No Patient Left Alone Act," is headed to the governor's desk. The bill passed the state Senate, 49-0, on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

    The bill ensures patients in health care facilities can have a visitor, which should be commonplace but ended because of COVID restrictions. Many people died alone. The bill passed the House, 79-19, on Sept. 23.

    The law would create mandatory visitation rights for patients, including in nursing homes and hospice care facilities, and requires those facilities to follow federal guidelines for visitation, a news release says. Facilities found violating visitation rights would be subject to a $500 fine per day for each incident.

    "No human being should be left to die alone, forcibly separated from a loved one," said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, who sponsored the bill.

    Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, a co-sponsor, said, "The fact that so many families were forced apart during a critical time is heartbreaking. We must prevent this tragedy from happening again."