S.B. No. 1525




AN ACT

relating to safe patient handling and movement practices of nurses 
in hospitals and nursing homes.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subtitle B, Title 4, Health and Safety Code, is 
amended by adding Chapter 256 to read as follows:

CHAPTER 256.  SAFE PATIENT HANDLING AND MOVEMENT PRACTICES
	Sec. 256.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:                           
		(1)  "Hospital" means a general or special hospital, as 
defined by Section 241.003, a private mental hospital licensed 
under Chapter 577, or another hospital that is maintained or 
operated by the state.
		(2)  "Nursing home" means an institution licensed under 
Chapter 242. 
	Sec. 256.002.  REQUIRED SAFE PATIENT HANDLING AND MOVEMENT 
POLICY.  (a)  The governing body of a hospital or the quality 
assurance committee of a nursing home shall adopt and ensure 
implementation of a policy to identify, assess, and develop 
strategies to control risk of injury to patients and nurses 
associated with the lifting, transferring, repositioning, or 
movement of a patient.
	(b)  The policy shall establish a process that, at a minimum, 
includes:
		(1)  analysis of the risk of injury to both patients and 
nurses posed by the patient handling needs of the patient 
populations served by the hospital or nursing home and the physical 
environment in which patient handling and movement occurs;
		(2)  education of nurses in the identification, 
assessment, and control of risks of injury to patients and nurses 
during patient handling;
		(3)  evaluation of alternative ways to reduce risks 
associated with patient handling, including evaluation of 
equipment and the environment;
		(4)  restriction, to the extent feasible with existing 
equipment and aids, of manual patient handling or movement of all or 
most of a patient's weight to emergency, life-threatening, or 
otherwise exceptional circumstances;
		(5)  collaboration with and annual report to the nurse 
staffing committee;
		(6)  procedures for nurses to refuse to perform or be 
involved in patient handling or movement that the nurse believes in 
good faith will expose a patient or a nurse to an unacceptable risk 
of injury;
		(7)  submission of an annual report to the governing 
body or the quality assurance committee on activities related to 
the identification, assessment, and development of strategies to 
control risk of injury to patients and nurses associated with the 
lifting, transferring, repositioning, or movement of a patient; and
		(8)  in developing architectural plans for 
constructing or remodeling a hospital or nursing home or a unit of a 
hospital or nursing home in which patient handling and movement 
occurs, consideration of the feasibility of incorporating patient 
handling equipment or the physical space and construction design 
needed to incorporate that equipment at a later date.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect January 1, 2006.                             





______________________________    ______________________________
President of the Senate             Speaker of the House
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1525 passed the Senate on 
April 20, 2005, by the following vote:  Yeas 30, Nays 1; and that 
the Senate concurred in House amendment on May 27, 2005, by the 
following vote:  Yeas 29, Nays 0.




______________________________ 
   Secretary of the Senate             
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1525 passed the House, with 
amendment, on May 25, 2005, by a non-record vote.




______________________________ 
   Chief Clerk of the House            



Approved:


______________________________ 
            Date



______________________________ 
          Governor