By Hill                                               H.B. No. 1261
         76R1112 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to listing certain incidents of abuse or neglect by a
 1-3     nurse's aide in a convalescent or nursing home or related
 1-4     institution.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Subchapter E, Chapter 242, Health and Safety
 1-7     Code, is amended by adding Section 242.1301 to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 242.1301.  CENTRAL REGISTRY TREATMENT OF CERTAIN REPORTS
 1-9     OF ABUSE, NEGLECT, OR MISTREATMENT; NURSE AIDES.  (a) In this
1-10     section, "nurse aide registry" has the meaning assigned by Section
1-11     250.001.
1-12           (b)  The department shall list as a separate category in the
1-13     central registry maintained under Section 242.130 the names and any
1-14     other necessary identifying information of all nurse aides involved
1-15     in a report of abuse or neglect of a resident in which the
1-16     proceedings, if any, and the investigation conducted by the
1-17     department in relation to the report:
1-18                 (1)  do not warrant designating in the nurse aide
1-19     registry that the nurse aide has been found by the department to
1-20     have committed an act of abuse, neglect, or mistreatment of the
1-21     resident; but
1-22                 (2)  do warrant a finding by the department that at
1-23     least two of the following three factors were present in the nurse
1-24     aide's treatment of the resident:
 2-1                       (A)  the nurse aide's treatment of the resident
 2-2     was unlawful and either intentional or reckless;
 2-3                       (B)  the nurse aide knew or should have known
 2-4     that the nurse aide's treatment of the resident was unlawful; and
 2-5                       (C)  the resident was harmed by the nurse aide's
 2-6     treatment of the resident.
 2-7           (c)  The department shall allow a nurse aide to petition the
 2-8     department to remove the nurse aide's name and other necessary
 2-9     identifying information from the central registry category
2-10     established under Subsection (b). The department shall use the same
2-11     standards and procedures that are required or used under federal
2-12     law for a petition to remove a designation of a finding of abuse,
2-13     neglect, or mistreatment from the nurse aide registry.
2-14           (d)  The department shall maintain the central registry
2-15     category established under Subsection (b) in such a manner that it
2-16     is clearly indicated to a person who inspects or receives a copy of
2-17     all or part of the information in the central registry category
2-18     that:
2-19                 (1)  the central registry category is distinct from the
2-20     nurse aide registry;
2-21                 (2)  inspection of information in the central registry
2-22     category does not satisfy any legal requirement to verify whether
2-23     information is contained in the nurse aide registry; and
2-24                 (3)  Section 250.003, Health and Safety Code, applies
2-25     only in relation to information that is contained in the nurse aide
2-26     registry.
2-27           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 3-1           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.