Passage of Senate Bill (SB) 1875, on January 1, 2001 and SB 801, on March 22, 2002 added Chapter 2.05 (commencing with Section 1339.63) to Division 2 of the Health and Safety Code. This addition requires as a condition of licensure that all general acute care hospitals, surgical clinics, and special hospitals adopt a formal plan to eliminate or substantially reduce medication-related errors.

Health and Safety Code 1339.63 (f) revises the circumstances under which the California Department of Public Health (formerly California Department of Health Services) conducts licensure visits and authorizes the department to monitor for implementation of each facility’s plan upon licensure visits beginning January 1, 2005.

This All Facilities Letter serves as notification that California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will be monitoring implementation of Health and Safety Code 1339.63 by conducting periodic licensure visits of all facilities affected by this legislation.

Currently CDPH Licensing and Certification program, in collaboration with stakeholders, is designing the process to monitor by onsite inspection implementation of each facility medication error reduction plan. Subsequent to development of that process an All Facilities Letter will be released to provide guidance on inspection expectations.

CDPH expects the enactment of this statute led to improvements in medication safety and healthcare quality for the residents of California.

If you have questions regarding this notification, please contact Dr. Loriann De Martini, Pharm.D., Chief Pharmaceutical Consultant at (916) 552-8645.

Sincerely,

Original Signed by Kathleen Billingsley, R.N.

Kathleen Billingsley, R.N.
Deputy Director