The Colorado Senate’s 23-10 vote in support of Senate Bill 53 came as a surprise to Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, who wasn’t sure the bill had the votes to pass.

SB 53 would allow a patient in a hospital or long-term care facility to have one visitor during a pandemic, but under a long list of restrictions sought by those facilities and that Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, agreed to add. Sonnenberg said the bill is the most important one he’s carried in his 16 years in the General Assembly.

The bill requires health care facilities to have clear visitation policies, with restrictions that could limit visitors to reduce the heightened risk of transmitting a disease during a health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. But the bill also says a facility cannot block visitors strictly because of that risk. Under the proposal, facilities would be allowed to require testing, masking and a signed waiver on the risks, and deny visitors who show symptoms. An amendment added to the bill also says verbal and physical assaults on health care workers would not be tolerated. 

Tuesday’s vote capped several days of emotion-packed stories from senators who have experienced the trauma of losing a loved one to COVID, and a last-minute plea from the sponsor for the votes that would move the bill on to its next step. 

The bill was amended to satisfy every concern from hospitals and long-term care facilities, Sonnenberg told the Senate Tuesday, although it wasn’t enough to gain their support, he said. 

“Families just want the hold the hands of their loved ones,” Sonnenberg said. “Choose family over bureaucratic regulations.”

During the March 25 debate in the Senate, the bill won unexpected support from a long list of Democratic senators who shared their own stories of dealing with COVID. That included at least three who were prepared to vote against the bill just days before.

That included Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont, who voted against the bill during a Feb. 1 hearing with the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. Jaquez Lewis told her colleagues during the March 25 floor debate that while hospitals and health care workers must be protected, families must be allowed to see patients.  

Senate President Pro tem Kerry Donovan of Vail, often speaking through tears, told the story of her grandmother, who she said had stopped eating or drinking during the pandemic because of the isolation from COVID. Donovan’s mom was able to persuade the facility to allow her in because she had a daughter who was a state senator. After visitation, Donovan said her grandmother started to come back from the brink. 

 “This is a power struggle on paper, yet we’re forgetting about the power of personal touch … We have to find the areas of compassion in these moments and treat people the best we can, and medical care sometimes means having a family member there,” Donovan said. 

Sen. Chris Kolker, D-Centennial, also choked back tears while he talked about his dad, who had leukemia during the pandemic. Kolker said he was a “no” vote prior to the March 25 debate, in part because he said he is scared of the next pandemic. But he supports the bill’s efforts to find enough flexibility to allow patients to see their families, he said.

The vote was bipartisan on both sides. Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, was among the “no” votes. The bill opens the door to litigation, which will increase health care costs, he told the Senate. It creates more problems than the one it tries to solve, Priola added. 

Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, was the swing vote that got the bill out of the State Affairs committee. People didn’t take the pandemic seriously, Gonzales told the Senate. Sometimes people died alone because of COVID, she said, others died because hospitals had to limit patients.

“Y’all know that I’ve lived this policy in a visceral way,” she said, referring to several family members who died from COVID, including her oldest brother. 

“Too many Coloradans died alone, because not enough of us as leaders took this virus seriously,” Gonzales said. “Now that we’ve heard the pleas from Coloradans who mourn those precious moments lost with their loved ones, now we should ensure no one dies alone. It’s cold comfort for those of us who have to visit grave sites.”

Sen. Faith Winter’s father is a nurse and was threatened during the pandemic, the Westminster Democrat told the Senate. She talked to her dad, who said no one should die alone. But he wouldn’t have been a nurse without the protections provided during the pandemic, and she said that to ask health care professionals to go in every day, face patients and put themselves at risk is difficult. Lawmakers cannot predict the future in a way that makes sense to put this into statute, she said, in explaining her ‘no’ vote.

SB 53 now moves on to the House, where three previous attempts to pass visitation bills have failed, including one just last week. Sonnenberg said those other measures did not take into account the concerns of the hospital and long-term care facilities.