---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY AND OBLIGATIONS OF HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS FOR NON-ACUTE PATIENTS."
description: "Presently, a legal process does not exist for a Delaware hospital to seek the appointment of a guardian for a non-acute patient who has been a patient at the hospital for an extended period, after having been abandoned by family. This bill authorizes a hospital to petition for a court-appointed guardian for such a patient after providing two notices to the patient, the patient's surrogate, or the patient's family if there is no surrogate, of the need to seek a guardian for the patient."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "150"
identifier: "SB 246"
citation: "Delaware SB 246 (150)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nicole Poore", "Raymond Seigfried"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-06-16"
last_action: "2020-08-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ba554b9f-ef9d-4f49-8271-1bbb05bb627b"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48141"
source_hash: "4a623e3dbaf210f735a7b48b6a7dab4057d0afd35a414d7d50d67b67d68e1947"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware SB 246 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY AND OBLIGATIONS OF HEALTH-CARE PROVIDERS FOR NON-ACUTE PATIENTS.

Presently, a legal process does not exist for a Delaware hospital to seek the appointment of a guardian for a non-acute patient who has been a patient at the hospital for an extended period, after having been abandoned by family. This bill authorizes a hospital to petition for a court-appointed guardian for such a patient after providing two notices to the patient, the patient's surrogate, or the patient's family if there is no surrogate, of the need to seek a guardian for the patient.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=48141&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB246)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **41–0** (pass) · lower
- 2/3 — **21–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Raymond Seigfried — primary (person)
- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Michael F. Smith — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-06-16** Introduced and Laid on Table in Senate `introduction`
- **2020-06-23** Suspension of Rules in Senate
- **2020-06-23** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2020-06-23** Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2020-06-25** Suspension of Rules in House
- **2020-06-25** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
- **2020-08-06** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ba554b9f-ef9d-4f49-8271-1bbb05bb627b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).