STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1470

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   S.B. No. 153

      S.D. 1

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Health and Public Safety & Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 153, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NATURAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN HEALTH CARE FACILITIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to ensure the health and safety of frail and elderly persons by appropriating funds to the Department of Health (DOH) to assess the structural integrity of all hospitals and nursing homes in Hawaii to determine their ability to withstand different types of natural disasters.

     The Healthcare Association of Hawaii and Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii supported this bill.  DOH did not support this measure.  The Department of Defense submitted comments. 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Removing nursing homes from the assessment and specifying that only state hospitals, instead of all hospitals, are to be included in the assessment; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive, amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

     Although nursing-home facilities have been removed from the assessment provisions contained in this bill, your Committees encourage continued discussion regarding the impact of natural disasters on nursing-home facilities and how best to protect such facilities.  Your Committees support future legislative efforts to address these concerns.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Public Safety & Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 153, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 153, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Public Safety & Military Affairs,

____________________________ CINDY EVANS, Chair

____________________________ JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair