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Senate committee approves bill allowing certified dialysis techs to give heparin and creating nursing registry
Summary
The Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee approved House Bill 11-83 to permit certified patient care technicians in dialysis centers to administer heparin under RN direction and to create a registry at the Arkansas Board of Nursing.
Representative Bentley, appearing before the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, introduced House Bill 11-83, saying the bill would permit certified patient care technicians (PCTs) in dialysis clinics to administer heparin and would create a registry with the Board of Nursing.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Bentley, told the committee the measure “is a very simple bill to help our certified dialysis patients across the state.” She said it “allows our PCTs to give heparin to the patients there as they do in 38 other states” and establishes a nursing-board registry so the board “can keep up with those folks that are patient care techs so they can if there's a bad act or whatever, they can keep up with it.”
The sponsor described current staffing ratios in many clinics, saying “we have a ratio of in most clinics of 12 patients to 1 RN and 4 patients to 1 patient care tech.” She said the change would let trained, nationally certified PCTs give heparin under RN direction and follow existing protocols for dosing and safety. “If you don't have heparin in that dialysis machine, it's like not having oil in your engine,” she said, describing why timely administration matters for patient care and clinic flow.
Committee members asked no questions and no outside witnesses appeared in support or opposition during the hearing. The committee moved the bill and approved it by voice vote; the clerk announced, “Ayes have it. Congratulations. House bill 11 83 is passed.” The committee record does not show a roll-call tally.
The bill requires the Arkansas Board of Nursing to operate the registry and leaves dosing and safety parameters to existing clinical protocols and RN oversight, according to the sponsor’s presentation. The sponsor said physicians in private practice who already allow PCTs to perform similar tasks will be unaffected by the registry provision.
With the committee’s approval, HB 11-83 advanced from the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee to the next step in the legislative process.
A vote on the measure was taken by voice; no roll-call vote was recorded in the committee transcript.
