Recently, Rhode Island introduced “An Act Relating to Health and Safety – Safe Patient Handling Legislation” into both the House and the Senate.
RI Senate Bill 2760 was introduced February 14, 2006, and RI House Bill 7386 was introduced February 16, 2006.
If passed into law, the legislation will require that “…each licensed health care facility shall…Implement a safe patient handling policy for all shifts and units of the facility that will achieve elimination of manual lifting, transferring, and repositioning of all or most of a patient’s weight, except in emergency, life-threatening, or otherwise exceptional circumstances…”
Learn more about RI SB 2760 and RI HB 7386: www.rilin.state.ri.us