A new California law now requires hospital employees to involve family caregivers during hospitalization and discharge, a move that puts California in the ranks of 17 other states that passed similar laws in the past two years, according to Kaiser Health News.
Roughly 40 million Americans said they cared for a relative in the past year, according to a 2015 study from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, and that number is expected to grow as the nation's population ages, KHN reported. Another AARP study, from 2012, found nearly half of family caregivers perform medical tasks without training or guidance.
Under the California law, patients have the opportunity to identify a caregiver. Then, staff must notify the caregiver when the patient is going to be discharged and give information and instruction on what the patient will need outside the hospital, according to KHN.
The law "make[s] sure that family caregivers have all the information they need to safely care for their loved ones at home," Elaine Ryan, AARP's vice president of state advocacy and strategy, told KHN. AARP helped craft model legislation that some of these laws are based on.