Maryland panel backs bill to speed placement of pediatric hospital overstays, funds two coordinators

The Health and Government Operations Committee voted March 26 to move House Bill 962 — Public Health — Pediatric Hospital Overstay Patients — favorably with amendments, approving language that directs state agencies to coordinate placement and creates two pediatric overstay coordinator positions to help transfer children out of hospitals when clinically appropriate.

Committee chair Jocelyn Pena Milnek opened discussion by saying the panel had already examined the legislation in prior meetings and described it as a negotiated compromise. “These are children that are abandoned at the hospitals as young as 6 years old,” Pena Milnek said. “This is simply, as we like to say here, the right thing to do. These kids deserve more than they're getting from us.”

The bill, as amended and explained to the committee, requires the Maryland Department of Health, in coordination with the Department of Human Services, to ensure a pediatric hospital overstay patient is transferred to and treated in the least restrictive setting when clinically indicated and when possible. The amendments: clarify the definition of “pediatric overstay patient”; require hospitals to seek transfer if a patient remains in the hospital for more than 48 hours and the bed…