A new Pennsylvania law is designed to make sure caregivers of family members discharged from the hospital receive proper help understanding the medications, physical tasks and other assistance those patients will need once back home.
The mandated education of caregivers by hospital staff will come from unanimous passage this week — by the Senate Monday and House Tuesday — of the Pennsylvania Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable Act (or CARE Act, for short). It was sponsored by Rep. Hal English, R-Hampton, at the request of constituents who are AARP volunteers.
Pennsylvania AARP made the measure its top legislature priority this year, noting similar laws exist in at least 22 other states to benefit home caregivers and patients. The bill requires that hospitals record contact information for a personal caregiver either in or out of the family, if the patient identifies one upon admission. A hospital is to contact that caregiver before a patient’s discharge and provide instruction in person or by video on any medical-related tasks that the patient will need help with at home.
“Some hospitals do this, but we hear way too many concerns from families and members that they didn’t get the training they needed,” said state AARP director Bill Johnston-Walsh, referring to issues such as bandage changes, wheelchair transfers and medication schedules for which caregivers may carry new responsibility.
He said hospitals typically collect information about a patient’s next-of-kin, but the caregiver may be a different family member or friend with whom the hospital will now need to communicate.
The bill takes effect a year after Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature, which is expected shortly, but it will not require a significant adjustment for most hospitals, said Scott Bishop, senior vice president of the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. He said the association supported the legislation and partnered with AARP in crafting it.
“It’s not the case where folks are leaving the hospital now and having no idea of the needs of their loved ones,” Mr. Bishop said. “The premise [behind the CARE Act] is the idea of consistency and underscoring what hospitals are doing as best practices, bringing formality and uniformity to some of this.”
Each hospital’s staff procedures and each patient’s condition may dictate different approaches to implementing the new law’s provisions. In general, a nurse, therapist, aide or other staff member would be expected to make sure at the hospital that not only the patient but the designated caregiver understands any procedures needed at home and warning signs that anything’s amiss afterward with the patient’s condition.
There are no enforcement penalties for any hospitals that fail to comply, but the bill spells out a legislative study of compliance to be completed within five years.
Gary Rotstein: grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.
First Published: April 13, 2016, 9:47 a.m.
