S7766 SPANO
Public Health Law
TITLE….Requires hospitals to report their hospital-acquired infection rates on a quarterly basis
10/15/04 REFERRED TO RULES COMMITTEE
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SUMMARY:
SPANO
Add S2805-q, Pub Health Law
Enacts the “hospital infections disclosure act”; requires all hospital to report their infection rates to the department of health on a quarterly basis; requires such department to report such rates to the governor and the legislature on an annual basis.
BILL TEXT:
STATE OF NEW YORK
7766
IN SENATE
October 15, 2004
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Introduced by Sen. SPANO — read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules.
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to enacting the “hospital infections disclosure act”
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the “hospital infections disclosure act”.
§ 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2805-q to read as follows:
§ 2805-q. Infection reporting.
- For the purposes of this section, “hospital-acquired infection” shall mean any localized or systemic patient condition that:
(a) results from an adverse reaction to the presence of an infectious
agent or agents, or its toxin or toxins; and
(b) was not present or incubating at the time of the patient’s admission to the hospital. - All hospitals shall collect and maintain records of data on hospital-acquired infection rates for specific surgical procedures and/or surveillance in critical care and/or intensive care units performed by the hospital, as determined by the commissioner, including the following types of infections:
(a) surgical site infections;
(b) ventilator associated pneumonia;
(c) central line related bloodstream infections;
(d) urinary tract catheter infections; and
(e) such other types of infections as shall be determined by the
commissioner. - On or before April thirtieth, July thirty-first, October thirty-
first and January thirty-first, each hospital shall report all data collected on hospital-acquired infections in such hospital during the immediately preceding quarter. - On or before March first, the department shall submit a report to
the governor and the legislature summarizing the data included in the hospital quarterly reports for the previous calendar year. In addition such report shall be available to the public upon request. - The commissioner shall establish and appoint members to an advisory committee. The members of the advisory committee shall include representation of infection control departments of both public and private hospitals, physicians, epidemiologists with hospital acquired infection expertise, academic researchers, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, organized labor, consumer organizations and purchasers of insurance, such as employers. The majority of the members of the advisory committee shall represent interest other than hospitals.
- The advisory committee shall work with the commissioners and the department to establish the standards, rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of this section. In addition, as directed by the commissioner on a regular basis, the department and the advisory committee shall evaluate the data collected from hospitals pursuant to this section, as well as the data collection, analysis and dissemination methodologies.
- While it shall be in the department’s discretion to adopt a methodology for the collection and analysis of all infection rate data, in developing such methodology the department and the advisory committee shall consider the existing methodologies and systems for data collection including, but not limited to, the Center for Disease Control’s National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, or its successor. The data collection and analysis methodology shall be disclosed to the public prior to any public disclosure of hospital-acquired infection rates.
- The department shall make, adopt, promulgate and enforce any such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that subdivisions 2, 3 and 4 of section 2805-q of the public health law, as added by section two of this act, shall take effect one year after the rules and regulations to implement the provisions of such section of the public health law are promulgated; provided, further, that the commissioner of health shall notify the legislative bill Medicare Modernization Act ing commission upon the promulgation of the rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of section 2805-q of the public health law, as added by section two of this act, in order that such commission may maintain an accurate and timely effective data base of the official text of the laws of the state of New York in furtherance of effecting the provisions of section 44 of the legislative law and section 70-b of the public officers law.
SPONSORS MEMO:
NEW YORK STATE SENATE
INTRODUCER’S MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
submitted in accordance with Senate Rule VI. Sec 1
BILL NUMBER: S7766
SPONSOR: SPANO
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the public health law, in relation to
enacting the “hospital infections disclosure act”
PURPOSE:
To require hospitals to report their hospital-acquired infection rates
on a quarterly basis.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one is the short title, the “Hospital Infections Disclosure
Act”.
Section two (a) amends the public health law by adding a new section
2805-q requiring infection reporting that results from an adverse
reaction to the presence of an infectious agent(s) or its toxin(s) and
(b) that was not present at the time of the patients admission to the
hospital.
Subsection two requires hospitals to collect and maintain records on
infection rates for specified surgical procedures and or surveillance in
critical care and/or intensive care units performed by the hospital, as
determined by the commissioner, including the following types of
infections: surgical site infections, ventilator associated pneumonia,
central line related bloodstream infections, urinary tract catheter
infections, and such other types of infections as shall be determined by
the commissioner.
Subsection three requires reporting of infections on or before April
30th, July 31st, October 31st and January 31st.
Subsection four requires the department to submit a report to the gover-
nor and the legislature summarizing the data reported on or before March
1st.
Subsection five allows the commissioner to establish and appoint members
to an advisory committee.
Subsection six requires the advisory committee to work with the commis-
sioner of the department to establish standards, rules and regulations
necessary to implement the provisions of this section.
Subsection seven requires the advisory committee to consider the exist-
ing methodologies and systems for data collection, including but not
limited to, the Center for Disease Control’s National Nasomial Infection
Surveillance program.
JUSTIFICATION:
New York State must protect its citizens by requiring hospitals to
report their hospital-acquired infection rates to the Department of
Health. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 90,000
infection-related deaths occur each year. More Americans die each year
from hospital-acquired infections than from auto accidents and homicides
combined. Patients should not get sicker because of an infection they
get while hospitalized for some other medical problem. A few states
have already taken the lead against this deadly healthcare problem by
requiring reporting of hospital infections to their health departments.
This bill is necessary to assist hospitals and the department to better
deal with the problem of hospital-acquired infections.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Undetermined.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
To check on status of S.7766, go to http://www.senate.state.ny.us, then select “Bills and Laws” from the list on the left, then type S.7766 in the box for “bill number.”