Senate Health & Social Services committee adopts substitute for SB 44, adds reporting and replaces "overseeing physician" with "professional person in charge"

The Senate Health and Social Services Committee adopted a committee substitute for Senate Bill 44 and moved the bill from committee after making nine edits requested by members and the Department of Family and Community Services.

Ariel Wigan, the committee aide, summarized the changes during the Feb. 6 meeting in Butrovich Room 205: "There are 9 total changes made in this committee substitute. These were requested both by members of the committee and the Department of Family and Children's Services." The aide then read the edits, which address oversight, reporting and language clarifications.

Key edits

- "Professional person in charge": The substitute replaces the phrase "overseeing physician" with "professional person in charge" in two places, changing who must be consulted for certain decisions and clarifying that authority may not be limited to an individual physician.

- Chemical restraint reporting: The committee added language requiring that notification from a psychiatric hospital regarding the use of a chemical restraint must include the type of psychotropic medication used.

- Data on minors: The substitute inserts a reporting requirement for data on the number of minors who received residential psychiatric care, explicitly including information on minors in state custody.

- Miscellaneous clarifications: The substitute adjusts phrasing on limits to the number of calls permitted and other grammatical clarifications suggested by members and the department.

Sponsor and committee discussion

Senator Klayman, sponsor of the bill, said the edit replacing "overseeing physician" with "professional person in charge" was intended to add a step that safeguards a person's ability to communicate with family when clinical staff consider limiting contact.

The committee briefly held a procedural objection to allow discussion before adopting the substitute; after members resolved questions, Chair Dunbar removed the objection and the substitute was adopted as the committee's working document. Senator Giesel moved to adopt the substitute and later moved to send the committee substitute from committee "with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note." There were no objections recorded to either action.

Ending

With the substitute adopted and the bill moved from committee, committee staff will circulate paperwork for members to sign. Chair Dunbar said the committee would be in touch about future dates and public testimony.