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SD 2249

An Act ensuring home care patient safety

194th Legislature (2025-2026) Introduced by Jake Oliveira

The bill requires up-to-date treatment and medication information sharing among doctors, hospitals, and home health agencies to prevent gaps in care for high-risk patients.

House concurred
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Bill Summary · SD 2249

Summary: An Act Ensuring Home Care Patient Safety (Senate Docket No. 2249)

Status: House concurred; Introduced February 27, 2025

Likely subject: Public Health; home health care safety for high-risk patients

Overview

This proposed Massachusetts bill aims to improve safety and continuity of care for high-risk patients receiving home health services. It focuses on ensuring up-to-date care information is shared among care providers, preventing disruption of critical services (including medication administration), enhancing error reporting and communication with families, and establishing a commission to study aging trends and patient safety in home health care.

Purpose and Intent

  • To prevent harm to high-risk home care patients by strengthening information flow between primary care physicians, hospitals, and home health agencies.
  • To ensure medication information and treatment plans are current at all points of care, especially at discharge from hospital settings.
  • To create systems and processes that reduce delays or gaps in critical home health services and to promote transparency when errors occur.
  • To study broader needs of an aging population and the causes of patient harm in home health care, with recommendations to improve safety and quality.

Key Provisions (highlights)

Section 1 — Definition and Information Sharing

  • Adds a new definition: “High Risk Patient” (patients with chronic conditions that challenge access to care; examples include dementia, diabetes complications, stroke, heart-related issues).
  • Requires home health care agencies to obtain the most updated treatment plan and the most updated medication list from both the patient’s primary care physician and the hospital, including at hospital discharge.

Section 2 — Care Continuity, Medication Management, and Safety Measures

  • Home care agencies must take specific steps to ensure critical services (including medication administration) for high-risk patients are not disrupted.
  • Agencies must provide the most updated medication information, including any changes to home visiting nurses.
  • Home health agencies must ensure substituting home visiting nurses have the most updated medication list and administration steps.
  • If medications are locked, agencies must ensure the high-risk patient has a supply of critical medications.
  • Inadvertent medical errors by home visiting nurses must be reported to the patient’s primary doctor and communicated to family members.
  • Agencies must establish a scheduling notification system that informs the home visiting nurse, the patient’s primary care doctor, and family members.
  • Establishment of a commission to study the rising needs of an increasing elder population (including in low-income communities) and the causes of patient harm in home health care, focusing on medical errors, challenges for health care workers, and recommendations to improve safety and reduce harm for high-risk patients.

Definitions (Key Term)

  • High Risk Patient: A patient with a series of chronic conditions that challenge access to care (e.g., dementia, diabetes-related complications, stroke, heart-related issues).

Who Is Affected

  • Home health care agencies and their administrators.
  • Home visiting nurses and supervising clinicians.
  • Primary care physicians and hospital staff involved in discharge planning.
  • High-risk patients and their families/caregivers.
  • Public health and workforce entities through the proposed commission.

Procedural and Timeline Considerations

  • Legislative Action indicates referral to the Public Health committee on February 27, 2025.
  • The bill includes enacted provisions to be added to Chapter 111 of the General Laws (as of the 2022 Official Edition).
  • A commission is to be established to study elder care needs and causes of patient harm, with recommendations to improve safety and quality.

Potential Impacts

  • Improved care coordination between hospitals, primary care, and home health providers.
  • Greater consistency and visibility of up-to-date treatment plans and medication lists for high-risk patients.
  • Enhanced accountability through required error reporting to physicians and families.
  • Possible administrative and system upgrades for scheduling, communication, and medication management.
  • Data and insights from the commissioned study could inform broader policy decisions on elder care and home health safety.

If you’d like, I can condense this into a one-page briefing or expand any section with additional context or potential implementation considerations.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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