By Jones of Dallas                                    H.B. No. 1225
         76R2744 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the number of nurse aides on duty in a convalescent or
 1-3     nursing home or related institution in which elderly persons
 1-4     reside.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 242.037, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-7     amended by adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
 1-8           (h)  In adopting standards or rules under this section
 1-9     regulating the number and qualifications of personnel responsible
1-10     for the care given to the residents of an institution in which
1-11     elderly persons are resident, the board shall require that an
1-12     institution have at least one nurse aide on duty:
1-13                 (1)  for every eight residents who are elderly persons,
1-14     during the work shift that includes most of the morning;
1-15                 (2)  for every 10 residents who are elderly persons,
1-16     during the work shift that includes most of the afternoon; and
1-17                 (3)  for every 14 residents who are elderly persons,
1-18     during the work shift that includes most of the night.
1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.