By Wise                                         H.B. No. 1798

      75R4816 SAW-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to hospital licensure requirements relating to missing

 1-3     infants.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 241, Health and Safety

 1-6     Code, is amended by adding Section 241.0263 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 241.0263.  REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO MISSING CHILDREN.

 1-8     (a)  To be eligible for issuance or renewal of a license under this

 1-9     chapter, a hospital must establish procedures in accordance with

1-10     department rules to:

1-11                 (1)  reduce the likelihood of infant patient abduction;

1-12     and

1-13                 (2)  aid in the identification of missing infants.

1-14           (b)  The procedures required by the department under

1-15     Subsection (a)(1) may include:

1-16                 (1)  controlling access to infant care areas;

1-17                 (2)  expanding observation of infant care areas through

1-18     the use of video cameras; and

1-19                 (3)  requiring identification for hospital staff and

1-20     visitors as a condition of entrance to infant care areas.

1-21           (c)  The procedures required by the department under

1-22     Subsection (a)(2) may include:

1-23                 (1)  footprinting, photographing, or writing

1-24     descriptions of infant patients at birth or on admission to the

 2-1     hospital; and

 2-2                 (2)  obtaining umbilical cord blood samples for infant

 2-3     patients born at the hospital and storing the samples for genetic

 2-4     testing purposes.

 2-5           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

 2-6     applies only to a hospital license issued or renewed on or after

 2-7     January 1, 1998.  A hospital license issued or renewed before

 2-8     January 1, 1998, is governed by the law as it existed immediately

 2-9     before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in

2-10     effect for that purpose.

2-11           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.