NEW YORK – Assembly Members Nicole Malliotakis and Michael Reilly joined  members from both sides of the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation to require every residential healthcare facility to develop a pandemic emergency plan and make it available to the public.

Specifically, Assembly Bill 10394-A would address three main points:

1.          Communications between a facility and the family/guardian of the patient, and commendations between the patient and their family:

•               Updating family members about infected residents once a day and families of all residents weekly.

•               Developing a method to allow all families to have free video conferencing with a resident daily.

2.          An outline of a protection plan against infection for staff, residents and family: 

•               A plan to safely readmit residents after they have been successfully treated.

•               A plan to ensure each facility has at least two months’ supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

3. A plan for reserving a resident’s place at the facility if the resident becomes hospitalized.

Assembly Member Malliotakis said, “Throughout the pandemic, we heard from many concerned family members who could not find out the status of their loved ones and staff members who did not have the proper PPE to do their job safely. Having clear protocols for communication, transparency and personal protection of both staff and residents in place prior to a pandemic will improve conditions and provide a sense of security to all. This is an important step toward ensuring the tragedies that unfolded in some of these facilities will not be repeated during a second outbreak of COVID-19.”    

“Ensuring our nursing home facilities have comprehensive emergency plans is a positive step toward improving a response to future emergency incidents. I further renew our call for the state Senate and Assembly to hold hearings and appoint an independent investigator to thoroughly analyze the state's response protocols as they relate to nursing homes. An independent investigator will provide transparency and accountability,” said Assembly Member Reilly.