Texas lawmaker plans to re-file hospital bollard bill despite ‘very aggressive' lobbying

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3 days ago

This story is part of KXAN's 'Preventing Disaster' investigation, which initially published on May 15, 2024. The project follows a fatal car crash into an Austin hospital's emergency room earlier that year. Our team took a broader look at safety concerns with that crash and hundreds of others across the nation – including whether medical sites had security barriers – known as bollards – at their entrances. Experts say those could stop crashes from happening.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Despite a 'VERY aggressive lobbying effort' by the Texas Hospital Association to kill a bill aimed at preventing vehicle crashes at emergency entrances — following last year's deadly crash at St. David's North Austin Medical Center — a state senator is pledging to refile the same safety measure next session, according to a senior staffer.
Senate Bill 660, sparked by a KXAN investigation, sought to require crash-rated vertical barriers, called bollards, at Texas hospital entrances. The proposal was supported by the Texas Nurses Association, which said 'all protections should be considered' to ensure healthcare workers are safe and protected.
It passed the Senate but stalled in a House committee despite a last-minute amendment to only require bollards at new hospitals in cities with a population of 1.2 million or greater.
'I am disappointed that Senate Bill 660 died in the House Public Health Committee, especially after we took so many suggestions from stakeholders on modifying the legislation,' said the bill's author, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who called the bollard requirement 'common-sense public safety legislation.'
On Feb. 13, 2024, a drunk driver drove into the lobby of St. David's North, running over all four members of the Bernard family, including their two toddlers. The driver, Michelle Holloway, 57, was killed. After the crash, the Bernards — who were seriously injured — spoke exclusively to KXAN about their ordeal and their goal moving forward.
'That no one will have to suffer like we do,' said Nadia Bernard, who was still in a wheelchair recovering at the time.
That plea led to a more than year-long KXAN investigation looking into crashes and finding solutions to prevent them. After surveying dozens of hospitals, watching bollard crash-tests at Texas A&M's Transportation Institute and learning about the strength of the security barriers, we were asked to share our findings with lawmakers as they considered SB 660, which would have required bollards at hospitals statewide.
'Without a uniform statewide approach, we found a patchwork system where some hospitals are protected while others remain vulnerable,' KXAN investigative reporter Matt Grant told a Senate panel.
EXPLORE: KXAN's 'Preventing Disaster' investigation into medical center crashes
Using data from the non-profit Storefront Safety council, TxDOT, police and media reports, we built our own nationwide database of crashes over the past decade.
We looked at places patients receive care, according to the state's definition of 'health care provider' that includes doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists, among others.
The result: By the start of the legislative session, we had identified more than 400 crashes since 2014 including more than 100 in Texas.
Months later, as we continued to track and collect data, the list of crashes into, or at, medical-related sites had expanded to more than 580. The majority were caused by drivers who were either hurt, intoxicated — like at St. David's — or had pressed the wrong foot pedal.
Nearly 160 of the crashes were at hospitals and almost half of those impacted the ER entrance area.
In all, we identified at least two dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries.
'I think you've built the best dataset in the country right now,' said Ware Wendell, a consumer and patient advocate with Texas Watch.
'So, it definitely informed the debate here in Texas,' Wendell added. 'And, I wouldn't be surprised if it informs the debate all around the country as hospitals evaluate how they are protecting folks inside of their emergency rooms.'
'I have to credit you, Matt, and your team at KXAN, for doing the deep dive, for digging into the data.
Ware Wendell, Texas Watch
Map of crashes that have occurred at or into Texas hospitals since 2014. Source: Texas Department of Transportation, media reports, Storefront Safety Council. (KXAN Interactive/Dalton Huey)
The Texas Hospital Association, which represents 85% of the state's acute-care hospitals and health care systems, testified against SB 660.
'Singling out hospital emergency rooms to install bollards would not prevent, based on the statistics we're aware of, the overwhelming majority of these types of accidents because they simply don't occur in hospitals,' THA General Counsel Steve Wohleb told lawmakers in March, referring to a majority of crashes occurring at business storefronts.
Behind the scenes, sources tell KXAN the industry group lobbied heavily against the proposal.
In a memo sent to hospitals around the state that we obtained, the THA criticized KXAN for including other medical centers in our data, not just hospitals, and, citing autonomy and cost as a factor, called the bill an 'unfunded mandate, without evidence-based support.'
'I would question that,' said Thomas Ustach with the McCue Corporation. 'What is the cost of life safety?'
McCue is the same bollard-making company that allowed KXAN to watch its crash tests in Texas last year. The company has installed security barriers at dozens of hospitals across the country.
The cost to secure an ER entrance, typically, is between $10,000 and $30,000, depending on how many bollards are needed, Ustach said.
A single crash-rated bollard, on average, costs around $1,500-$2,000 to purchase and install, he pointed out.
'It's really not a difficult or costly fix to the problem,' Ustach said. 'So, I'm surprised that there's so much pushback against the bill.'
Ustach said he's proud the crash-testing we witnessed last year could 'shine some light' — to the public and policymakers — on why, when it comes to bollards, testing and strict performance requirements are necessary.
'You can't leave it up to chance when you're talking life safety,' he added.
Today, the Bernard family is in the middle of a $1 million lawsuit against St. David's for not having bollards at the time. St. David's previously said it does not comment on litigation.
This isn't the first time a hospital's lack of protective barriers has been the focus of a lawsuit. In 2020, a driver lost control and drove into the patient entrance of Atlanta-based Piedmont Hospital. Several people were hit and a 55-year-old woman was killed. The lawsuit blamed the hospital for its 'failure to provide bollards or other barriers' outside of its ER.
Piedmont settled for an undisclosed amount and previously did not respond to KXAN's request for comment.
St. David's previously told us it installed $500,000 worth of bollards at its Austin-area hospitals after last year's deadly ER crash. However, it has repeatedly refused to say if any of those bollards are crash-rated.
When asked about the bollard bill not advancing, St. David's said it 'does not have anything to add to your story.'
This month, the hospital system admitted for the first time that it opposed Austin's ordinance, which passed nearly six months ago, requiring crash-rated bollards at new city hospitals.
'If these hospitals won't do it voluntarily, there must be laws to protect all families from this predictable and preventable destruction.'
The Bernard Family in a statement to KXAN
A spokesperson for St. David's said the opposition was due, in part, to a belief the measure 'selectively targeted healthcare facilities' based on an incident at one of its hospitals.
'Our family is very disappointed that this common sense, statewide public safety bollard bill was killed by hospital special interests,' the Bernard family told KXAN.
'We are so grateful that Austin bravely acted to pass protective bollard legislation and know this proactive law will eventually pass at the statewide level,' the family added.
Former Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly said she is 'incredibly proud' of the local bollard ordinance she initiated. She hopes it serves as a model for other communities.
'While I'm disappointed that SB 660 did not make it out of the House Public Health Committee this session, I remain hopeful and encouraged,' Kelly said. 'Austin led the way by acting before tragedy struck again, and I firmly believe this idea's time will come at the statewide level.'
'Protecting patients, emergency personnel, and hospital visitors should never be a partisan issue — it's a matter of life safety,' she added, saying she looks forward to supporting the measure again next session.
The chair of the House Public Health Committee, Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, gave the bill a hearing but did not bring it back up again for a vote, allowing it to die.
His office, and the Texas Hospital Association, did not respond to a request for comment.
Graphic Artist Wendy Gonzalez, Director of Investigations and Innovation Josh Hinkle, Investigative Producer Dalton Huey, Investigative Photojournalist Chris Nelson and Digital Director Kate Winkle contributed to this report.
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