SRC-MKV S.B. 355 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Senate Research CenterS.B. 355 By: Lindsay Health & Human Services 7/5/2001 Enrolled DIGEST AND PURPOSE The Texas Health and Safety Code contains provisions that govern informed consent to psychiatric drugs for individuals in inpatient psychiatric settings, but none that apply to the residents of nursing homes. S.B. 355 proposes to correct this inequity in the law by extending the informed consent provisions to residents of nursing homes. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 242.501(a), Health and Safety Code, to add language regarding a nursing home resident's statement of rights to include the resident's right to have a physician explain to the resident recommended treatments and expected results, including reasonably expected effects, side effects, and risks associated with psychoactive medications, and to include the resident's right to receive information about prescribed psychoactive medication from the person prescribing the medication or that person's designee, to have any psychoactive medications prescribed and administered in a responsible manner, as mandated by Section 242.505, and to refuse to consent to the prescription of such drugs. SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 242L, Health and Safety Code, by adding Section 242.505, as follows: Sec. 242.505. PRESCRIPTION OF PSYCHOACTIVE MEDICATION. (a) Defines "medication-related emergency" and "psychoactive medication." (b) Prohibits a person from administering a psychoactive medication to a resident who does not consent to the prescription unless the patient is having a medication-related emergency or the person authorized by law to consent on behalf of the resident has consented to the prescription. (c) Provides that consent to the prescription of psychoactive medication given by a resident or by a person authorized by law to consent on behalf of the resident is only valid under certain conditions. (d) Requires a resident's refusal to consent to receive psychoactive medication to be documented in the resident's clinical record. (e) Provides that if a physician prescribed psychoactive medication without the resident's consent because of a medication-related emergency, the physician is required to document in the resident's clinical record in specific terms the necessity of the order and that the physician has evaluated but rejected other generally accepted, less intrusive forms of treatment, if any, and requires the treatment to be provided in the manner, consistent with clinically appropriate medical care, least restrictive of the resident's personal liberty. (f) Provides that a physician or a person designated by the physician is not liable for civil damages or an administrative penalty and is not subject to disciplinary action for a breach of confidentiality of medical information for a disclosure of the information provided under Subsection (c)(2) made by the resident or the person authorized by law to consent on behalf of the resident that occurs while the information is in the possession or control of the resident or the person authorized by law to consent on behalf of the resident. SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2001.