STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.891-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2982

H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2982 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOSPITALS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require hospitals to provide for the security of patient's personal effects during hospitalization by:

(1) Requiring the hospital to make a written inventory of the patient's personal effects and provide the patient with a copy;

(2) Holding the hospital liable for missing items unless it can prove that the patient or the patient's visitors were responsible for the loss; and

(3) Requiring hospitals to pay for the replacement cost of the missing item within 30 days of filing a claim, three times the replacement cost after the 30^th day, or six times the replacement cost after the 60^th day after filing a claim.

The Senator representing the 5^th Senatorial District testified in support of this measure.

The Department of Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, and Hawaii Pacific Health opposed this measure.

Your Committee finds that there may be occasions when a patient is hospitalized and the patient's personal effects that are required for daily activity, such as glasses, hearing aids, and dentures, are misplaced or lost, and the hospital immediately claims that it is not responsible. However, health care providers testified that standards already exist in handling reports of missing personal property.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Requiring the patient or the patient's representative to sign the written inventory upon admission;

(2) Providing that the hospital shall not be responsible for personal effects not inventoried prior to the performance of emergency procedures necessary to sustain the life of the patient;

(3) Requiring the hospital only to pay the replacement cost of the missing items within 30 days of filing a claim;

(4) Limiting the definition of "personal effects" to those necessary for the patient's activities of daily living; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2982, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2982, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

		____________________________ DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair