BILL NUMBER: SB 801 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 15
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE MARCH 21, 2002
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR MARCH 21, 2002
PASSED THE SENATE MARCH 11, 2002
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 28, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 15, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 8, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 29, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 28, 2002
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 10, 2001
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 27, 2001
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 23, 2001
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 28, 2001
INTRODUCED BY Senator Speier
FEBRUARY 23, 2001
An act to amend Sections 1339.63 and 123296 of the Health and
Safety Code, and to amend Section 4 of Chapter 842 of the Statutes of
2001, relating to public health, and declaring the urgency thereof,
to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 801, Speier. Health: health facilities and clinics: women,
infants, and children's nutrition.
Existing law regulates the licensure of health facilities and
clinics, as defined, and prescribes the duties of the State
Department of Health Services in this regard. Under existing law,
any person who violates provisions regulating health facilities or
who willfully or repeatedly violates any rule or regulation adopted
thereunder is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Existing law makes it a condition of licensure that these
facilities, with certain exceptions, implement a formal plan, on or
before January 1, 2005, to eliminate or substantially reduce
medication-related errors in the facility.
This bill would impose several requirements on the formal plan,
including a requirement that the plan evaluate, assess, and include a
method to address specified procedures and systems relating to
medication-related errors. The bill would require the department to
monitor the implementation of each of the facility's plans upon
licensure visits beginning January 1, 2005.
Because a violation of the provisions applicable to health
facilities is a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local
program.
Existing law, the California Special Supplemental Food Program for
Women, Infants, and Children, under the administration of the State
Department of Health Services, provides for the issuance of nutrition
coupons, as defined, to certain recipients with nutritional need, as
determined by a physician or health professional.
Existing law, commencing July 1, 2002, provides, until January 1,
2005, that the nutrition coupons issued under the program shall be
redeemable by recipients at any authorized retail food vendor, and
requires the department, by July 1, 2004, to submit a report to the
appropriate committees of the Legislature regarding the
implementation of this provision.
This bill would instead provide that the provisions described
above concerning retail food vendors shall be operative January 1,
2004, and shall remain in effect until July 1, 2006. This bill would
require the department to submit the report described above to the
Legislature on or before January 1, 2006. This bill would make
related changes.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 1339.63 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
1339.63. (a) (1) As a condition of licensure under this division,
every general acute care hospital, as defined in subdivision (a) of
Section 1250, special hospital, as defined in subdivision (f) of
Section 1250, and surgical clinic, as defined in paragraph (1) of
subdivision (b) of Section 1204, shall adopt a formal plan to
eliminate or substantially reduce medication-related errors. With
the exception of small and rural hospitals, as defined in Section
124840, this plan shall include technology implementation, such as,
but not limited to, computerized physician order entry or other
technology that, based upon independent, expert scientific advice and
data, has been shown effective in eliminating or substantially
reducing medication-related errors.
(2) Each facility's plan shall be provided to the State Department
of Health Services no later than January 1, 2002. Within 90 days
after submitting a plan, the department shall either approve the
plan, or return it to the facility with comments and suggestions for
improvement. The facility shall revise and resubmit the plan within
90 days after receiving it from the department. The department shall
provide final written approval within 90 days after resubmission,
but in no event later than January 1, 2003. The plan shall be
implemented on or before January 1, 2005.
(b) Any of the following facilities that is in the process of
constructing a new structure or retrofitting an existing structure
for the purposes of complying with seismic safety requirements shall
be exempt from implementing a plan by January 1, 2005:
(1) General acute care hospitals, as defined in subdivision (a) of
Section 1250.
(2) Special hospitals, as defined in subdivision (f) of Section
1250.
(3) Surgical clinics, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision
(b) of Section 1204.
(c) The implementation date for facilities that are in the process
of constructing a new structure or retrofitting an existing
structure shall be six months after the date of completion of all
retrofitting or new construction. The exemption and new
implementation date specified in this paragraph shall apply to those
facilities that have construction plans and financing for these
projects in place no later than July 1, 2002.
(d) For purposes of this chapter, a "medication-related error"
means any preventable medication-related event that adversely affects
a patient in a facility listed in subdivision (a), and that is
related to professional practice, or health care products,
procedures, and systems, including, but not limited to, prescribing,
prescription order communications, product labeling, packaging and
nomenclature, compounding, dispensing, distribution, administration,
education, monitoring, and use.
(e) Each facility's plan shall do the following:
(1) Evaluate, assess, and include a method to address each of the
procedures and systems listed under subdivision (d) to identify
weaknesses or deficiencies that could contribute to errors in the
administration of medication.
(2) Include an annual review to assess the effectiveness of the
implementation of each of the procedures and systems listed under
subdivision (d).
(3) Be modified as warranted when weaknesses or deficiencies are
noted to achieve the reduction of medication errors.
(4) Describe the technology to be implemented and how it is
expected to reduce medication errorsas described in paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a).
(5) Include a system or process to proactively identify actual or
potential medication-related errors. The system or process shall
include concurrent and retrospective review of clinical care.
(6) Include a multidisciplinary process, including health care
professionals responsible for pharmaceuticals, nursing, medical, and
administration, to regularly analyze all identified actual or
potential medication-related errors and describe how the analysis
will be utilized to change current procedures and systems to reduce
medication-related errors.
(7) Include a process to incorporate external medication-related
error alerts to modify current processes and systems as appropriate.
Failure to meet this criterion shall not cause disapproval of the
initial plan submitted.
(f) Beginning January 1, 2005, the department shall monitor the
implementation of each facility's plan upon licensure visits.
(g) The department may work with the facility's health care
community to present an annual symposium to recognize the best
practices for each of the procedures and systems listed under
subdivision (d).
SEC. 2. Section 123296 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
123296. (a) Nutrition coupons shall be redeemable by recipients
at any authorized retail food vendor.
(b) On or before January 1, 2006, the department shall submit a
report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature on the impact
of the implementation of this section, including an assessment of
the impact of this section on fraud and the integrity of the program.
(c) This section shall become operative January 1, 2004.
(d) This section shall remain in effect only until July 1, 2006,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before July 1, 2006, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 3. Section 4 of Chapter 842 of the Statutes of 2001 is
amended to read:
Sec. 4. By delaying the operative date of Section 123296 of the
Health and Safety Code to January 1, 2004, the Legislature intends to
provide the State Department of Health Services sufficient time to
ensure that it can monitor where California Special Supplemental Food
Program for Women, Infants, and Children vouchers are cashed, and
that the department will have sufficient data to conduct inventory
audits to protect the integrity of the program.
SEC. 4. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
SEC. 5. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to allow sufficient time to ensure that adequate fraud
protection measures are in place before Section 123296 of the Health
and Safety Code is implemented, and to eliminate or substantially
reduce medication-related errors in health facilities, it is
necessary that this act take effect immediately as an urgency
statute.