Public Act 097-0122
 
HB1684 EnrolledLRB097 09868 RPM 50025 b

    AN ACT concerning health facilities.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Hospital Licensing Act is amended by
changing Section 6.25 as follows:
 
    (210 ILCS 85/6.25)
    Sec. 6.25. Safe patient handling policy.
    (a) In this Section:
    "Health care worker" means an individual providing direct
patient care services who may be required to lift, transfer,
reposition, or move a patient.
    "Nurse" means an advanced practice nurse, a registered
nurse, or a licensed practical nurse licensed under the Nurse
Practice Act.
    "Safe lifting equipment and accessories" means mechanical
equipment designed to lift, move, reposition, and transfer
patients, including, but not limited to, fixed and portable
ceiling lifts, sit-to-stand lifts, slide sheets and boards,
slings, and repositioning and turning sheets.
    "Safe lifting team" means at least 2 individuals who are
trained in the use of both safe lifting techniques and safe
lifting equipment and accessories, including the
responsibility for knowing the location and condition of such
equipment and accessories.
    (b) A hospital must adopt and ensure implementation of a
policy to identify, assess, and develop strategies to control
risk of injury to patients and nurses and other health care
workers associated with the lifting, transferring,
repositioning, or movement of a patient. The policy shall
establish a process that, at a minimum, includes all of the
following:
        (1) Analysis of the risk of injury to patients and
    nurses and other health care workers posted by the patient
    handling needs of the patient populations served by the
    hospital and the physical environment in which the patient
    handling and movement occurs.
        (2) Education and training of nurses and other direct
    patient care providers in the identification, assessment,
    and control of risks of injury to patients and nurses and
    other health care workers during patient handling and on
    safe lifting policies and techniques and current lifting
    equipment.
        (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 except for emergency,
    life-threatening, or otherwise exceptional circumstances.
        (5) Collaboration with and an annual report to the
    nurse staffing committee.
        (6) Procedures for a nurse to refuse to perform or be
    involved in patient handling or movement that the nurse in
    good faith believes will expose a patient or nurse or other
    health care worker to an unacceptable risk of injury.
        (7) Submission of an annual report to the hospital's
    governing body or quality assurance committee on
    activities related to the identification, assessment, and
    development of strategies to control risk of injury to
    patients and nurses and other health care workers
    associated with the lifting, transferring, repositioning,
    or movement of a patient.
        (8) In developing architectural plans for construction
    or remodeling of a hospital or unit of a hospital 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.
        (9) Fostering and maintaining patient safety, dignity,
    self-determination, and choice, including the following
    policies, strategies, and procedures:
            (A) the existence and availability of a trained
        safe lifting team;
            (B) a policy of advising patients of a range of
        transfer and lift options, including adjustable
        diagnostic and treatment equipment, mechanical lifts,
        and provision of a trained safe lifting team;
            (C) the right of a competent patient, or guardian
        of a patient adjudicated incompetent, to choose among
        the range of transfer and lift options, subject to the
        provisions of subparagraph (E) of this paragraph (9);
            (D) procedures for documenting, upon admission and
        as status changes, a mobility assessment and plan for
        lifting, transferring, repositioning, or movement of a
        patient, including the choice of the patient or
        patient's guardian among the range of transfer and lift
        options; and
            (E) incorporation of such safe lifting procedures,
        techniques, and equipment as are consistent with
        applicable federal law.
(Source: P.A. 96-389, eff. 1-1-10; 96-1000, eff. 7-2-10.)