Enrolled Bill Summary

            House Bill 580 adds a chapter to the Health and Safety Code relating to automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The act requires each person or entity that acquires an AED to ensure that each user receives certain training, given or approved by the Texas Department of Health, that involves a licensed physician. The department must adopt rules establishing minimum requirements for the training and consider guidelines for AED training approved by nationally recognized associations. A person or entity that owns or leases an AED is required to maintain and test it according to the manufacturer's guidelines. The act requires a person or entity that acquires an AED to notify the local emergency medical services provider of its existence, location, and type and requires a person or entity that provides emergency care using an AED to promptly notify the local emergency medical services provider that it was used.

            House Bill 580 provides that a prescribing physician who authorizes acquisition of, a person or entity that provides approved training for, and any person or entity that acquires the AED are not liable for civil damages for such prescription, training, or acquisition unless an act is performed in a wilfully or wantonly negligent manner. The act adds requirements relating to authorized possession of an AED. Provisions of the act do not apply to hospitals.

            The act also amends the Civil Practice and Remedies Code's Good Samaritan Law to provide that a person who uses an AED at the scene of an emergency is not liable for civil damages unless the act is wilfully or wantonly negligent.