Lake County Gazette

Rep. Chris Bos recently spoke in support of Senate Bill 1405, which would mandate that nursing homes and other health care facilities allow a minimum of one visitor to visit residents and patients in the event of public health emergencies.

A clergyperson would not be counted as the one visitor. Visitors would be subject to health screenings before they entered the health care facility.

"We all acted and reacted at the beginning of COVID-19 because we had to," Bos said on April 4. "And if we don't take the steps now, moving forward, to look back and make adjustments where we need to make adjustments, like this bill, so family members are not dying alone, or cognitive decline and rapid decline in our long term health care facilities is happening. If we don't take a step to look back and make those changes, shame on us. This [bill] passed unanimous out of the Senate, it passed unanimous out of the committee, and I hope it passes unanimous [in the House]."

State Sen. Dan McConchie is the main sponsor of the bill. SB 1405 would change the Medical Patient Rights Act, taking out language that gave total power to health care facilities to regulate and restrict hours of visitation or the number of visitors per patient.

Fox News reported earlier in the year on a Libertyville family whose grandfather died alone in a hospital. His family was not permitted to visit him because of the hospital's visitor policy. 

“He’s everything to our family and he should have been surrounded by people he loved,” one of his grandchildren told Fox.