Buckner Passes Crucial Patient Safety Act
Bill Enhances Protections for Coloradans in Health Care System
The House, Health, Insurance & Environment Committee passed the Patient Safety Act, a bill by Rep. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora.
“Colorado is one of only five states in the country that doesn’t require fingerprint background checks for nurses, and one of only six States that doesn’t require the same for doctors,” said Rep. Buckner. “The Patient Safety Act addresses that gap by requiring fingerprint background checks for doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers authorized to prescribe controlled substances. This is a common sense change and it is time Colorado joins the rest of the nation to better protect our patients.”
Federal-level fingerprint based background checks are the most comprehensive means available to ensure patient safety and transparency. Currently, Colorado relies on self-disclosure to ensure doctors do not have past criminal convictions that would flag them as potentially unfit to provide care.
Michelle Shelley, the mother of a young girl with special needs and the cognitive ability of a 6-month-old, testified in support of the bill. Ms. Shelley described the traumatic experience of realizing that her daughter Aislinn was being abused by a registered nurse who was hired to care for her last summer in the family’s home.
“Her bed is no longer a peaceful place of rest—it is filled with nightmares,” said Shelley. “The abuse shouldn’t have ever happened. Today I ask you to support the Patient Safety Act because we have an obligation to add this protection for those who cannot speak.”
HB17-1121 also enters Colorado into the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact to enable these professionals to continue to provide telehealth nursing services and be able to practice in other states with their Colorado license. The bill also aligns the Nursing Practice Act to the Medical Practice Act to eliminate an existing “safe harbor” for addiction-related violations.
The 6-4 vote sends the bill to the House Appropriations committee.
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