SB 1310, An Act Authorizing Hospitals To Install Devices On An Exterior Wall Of An Emergency Department To Facilitate The Voluntary Surrender Of Infants To Emergency Department Sta

TESTIMONY OF THE CONNECTICUT HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION
SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN

Thursday, February 20, 2025

The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) appreciates this opportunity to submit testimony concerning SB 1310, An Act Authorizing Hospitals To Install Devices On An Exterior Wall Of An Emergency Department To Facilitate The Voluntary Surrender Of Infants To Emergency Department Staff. CHA has concerns about this bill as drafted.

Connecticut hospitals and health systems care for patients, strengthen the state’s economy, and support vulnerable communities across the state. Every day, they work to improve healthcare access, affordability, and health equity. Even as they face ongoing challenges, hospitals provide world-class care to everyone who walks through their doors, regardless of their ability to pay. Hospitals also support an exemplary workforce as the largest collective employer in the state, contribute significantly to the state’s economy, and invest in their communities addressing social drivers of health.
Connecticut’s Safe Havens Act for Newborns enables a distressed parent to leave a baby at a hospital Emergency Department (ED) anonymously, without fear of prosecution for abandonment, for up to 30 days after the child’s birth. Under current law, a hospital employee must take physical custody of the baby. When the law is invoked for a baby, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) immediately begins a process to terminate parental rights and places the baby in a home with a family that intends to adopt the child.

Since its enactment in 2000 and through February of 2024, 59 babies have been brought to Connecticut hospitals.

SB 1310 would change Connecticut’s law by allowing a person to stand outside of the ED and place the baby into a “safe haven bassinet” where a designated ED employee located inside the ED would then immediately take physical custody of the baby. As drafted, the bill would not require hospitals to install a safe haven bassinet, but rather allow them to do so.

CHA is concerned about SB 1310 for the following reasons:

  1. CHA is not aware of any pressing need to change Connecticut’s law, which requires the real-time transfer of the baby from one person to another person.
  2. The change proposed in SB 1310 would create a new operational risk associated with placing the baby into a safe haven bassinet, if the designated employee is, for some reason, unable to immediately take physical custody of the baby. This risk would be exacerbated in the event that the baby required immediate medical attention. Our current law requiring a warm person-to-person handoff has worked well for the past 25 years.
  3. The prospect of requiring a hospital to designate an employee to monitor a safe haven bassinet at all times is also concerning, given the current workforce shortage plaguing EDs and the increasing number of patients seeking healthcare in our EDs.
  4. Connecticut’s hospitals are presently enduring formidable fiscal challenges, making it unlikely that an ED would incur the expenses associated with installing and staffing a safe haven bassinet in the near future.

For these reasons, CHA believes that any potential changes to Connecticut’s Safe Havens Act for Newborns should be implemented only after careful consideration of the practical impact of any such changes, especially with respect to the health and welfare of the baby. CHA would support the establishment of a working group to complete this work. We respectfully ask the committee to include representatives of CHA and Connecticut hospitals as members if the Committee elects to establish such a group.

Thank you for your consideration of our position. For additional information, contact CHA Government Relations at (203) 294-7301.