licensing and certification

Overview of Statutes

Bill & Description	Health & Safety Code section	Effective Date
AB 774 (Chan) Requires general acute care hospitals (hospitals) to develop and maintain policies regarding patient qualifications for discount payments and charity care. This bill requires hospitals to comply with the provisions of the bill as a condition of licensure. Requires the Department to be responsible for enforcement of these provisions.	127400	1/1/2007
SB 739 (Speier) Established the Hospital Infectious Disease Control Program, placing certain requirements on the Department and general acute care hospitals for the surveillance and prevention of HAIs. Required the Department to establish an HAI Advisory Committee to make recommendations for the program based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other national sources.	1286.6	1/1/2007
AB 106 (Berg) Established requirement for general acute care hospitals, beginning October 1 to the following April 1 of each year, to offer immunizations for influenza and pneumococcal disease to its inpatients aged 65 and older, prior to being discharged, if the facility has the vaccine in its possession.	120392.9	1/1/2008
SB 350 (Alquist) Made technical and clarifying changes to current law involving the collection activities associated with a hospital’s charity care and discount payment policies.	127400 127405 127425 127430 127440 127444	1/1/2008
SB 633 (Alquist) Requires hospitals to provide every patient, who is expected to need long-term care at the time of discharge, with contact information for at least one public or nonprofit agency or organization dedicated to providing information or referral services relating to community-based long-term care options in the patient's county of residence and appropriate to the needs and characteristics of the patient. At a minimum, this information would include contact information for the area agency on aging serving the patient's county of residence, local independent living centers, and other information appropriate to the needs and characteristics of the patient.	1262.5	1/1/2008
AB 2128 (Emmerson) Codified existing regulatory requirements that licensed health facilities with a registered dietitian who works less than full-time must also employ a full-time dietetic services supervisor and codified existing regulatory educational requirements for the dietetic services supervisor. AB 2128 also authorized additional training pathways to be considered for purposes of determining the qualifications for a dietetic services supervisor and authorized the CDPH to grant flexibility requests to modify the educational requirements for an individual who has worked full time as a dietetic services supervisor in a health facility for five years or more when the bill becomes operative and allows the person to continue to function as a dietetic services supervisor for 18 months, as long as they are enrolled in a specified education program.	1265.4	1/1/2009
AB 2400 (Price) Requires a general acute care hospital or acute psychiatric hospital to provide notice to the public, the California Department of Public Health, and the county board of supervisors at least 30 days prior to closing a hospital, or eliminating or relocating supplemental services.	1255.25	1/1/2009
AB 2565 (Eng) Requires all general acute care hospitals to adopt a policy that would provide the family or next of kin of a patient that has been declared dead by reason of irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, with a reasonably brief period of accommodation to gather at the patient’s bedside. During this brief period of accommodation, a hospital is required to continue only previously ordered cardiopulmonary support. Requires hospitals to provide the family or next of kin with a written statement of the policy upon request, but no later than shortly after the treating physician has determined the potential of brain death is imminent. Also requires hospitals to make reasonable efforts to accommodate the practices and concerns of the patient and patient’s family while considering the needs of the other patients and prospective patients in urgent need of care.	1254.4	1/1/2009
AB 2747 (Berg) When a health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, requires the health care provider to provide the patient with the opportunity to receive information and counseling regarding specified end-of-life options and provide for the referral or transfer of a patient if the patient’s physician does not wish to comply with the patient’s choice of end-of-life care options.	442	1/1/2009
SB 158 (Florez) Expanded upon the current responsibilities of the existing California Department of Public Health Health Care Infection Surveillance, Prevention, and Control Program. In addition, requires hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to establish patient safety plans and hand hygiene programs to improve patient safety and reduce patient suffering resulting from preventable events. Also contains detailed training requirements for hospital infection control committee chairs and all licensed and nonlicensed hospital staff, including temporary and environmental services staff. Lastly, imposes restrictions on the use of port connections for any other use other than its intended use, except in emergency cases.	1288.5 1288.8 1279.6 1279.7 1288.45 1288.95	1/1/2009
SB 1058 (Alquist) Established the Medical Facility Infection Control and Prevention Act or “Nile’s Law”, which requires general acute care hospitals to develop more comprehensive policies and procedures to improve upon and further ensure adequate standards of infection control. In addition, hospitals are required to test patients upon admission, who meet certain criteria, for the presence of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Requires the California Department of Public Health to establish a health care acquired infection program. Requires hospitals to report incidences of central line associated blood stream infections, certain surgical site infections, and health-care-associated MRSA blood stream infections, healthcare-associated Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcal blood stream infections, and health-care-associated clostridium difficile infections. Based on these reports, the incidence rates of these infections will be posted on the CDPH web site	1255.8 1288.55	1/1/2009
AB 818 (Hernandez) Postpones implementation of epidural, enteral, and intravenous tube connection prohibitions. Requires the Advanced Medical Technology Association to provide the Legislature with an annual report on the progress of the International Standardization Organization (ISO) in publishing and designing the new tube connection standards. Requires general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, special hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities to amend existing patient safety plans to add interim preventative measures to avoid adverse events associated with misconnections, until ISO standards are adopted.	1279.7	1/1/2010

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