BILL NUMBER: AB 371	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 23, 2007
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 27, 2007

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Huffman

                        FEBRUARY 14, 2007

   An act to add Section 15459.10 to the Government Code, relating to
health facility financing, and making an appropriation therefor.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 371, as amended, Huffman. Health facilities.
   Existing law regulates the operation of health facilities,
including hospitals. The existing California Health Facilities
Financing Authority Act empowers the California Health Facilities
Financing Authority to make loans from the continuously appropriated
California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund to nonprofit
corporations or associations for financing or refinancing the
acquisition, construction, or remodeling of health facilities.
   Existing law, the California Occupational Safety and Health Act of
1973, establishes certain safety and other responsibilities of
employers and employees, including, but not limited to, the
requirement that no employer shall fail or neglect to provide safety
devices or safeguards reasonably necessary to render the employment
safe. This law also requires each employer to establish, implement,
and maintain an effective injury prevention program, as prescribed.
   This bill would require every general acute care hospital that
applies to the authority or any other public entity for financing
from the issuance of tax-exempt bonds to provide, with the
application, a copy of the hospital's injury and illness prevention
program established, implemented, and maintained pursuant to the
California Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1973 or through a
collective bargaining agreement. The copy of the program shall
specify how the general acute care hospital plans to implement or has
implemented the program with a specified zero lift 
component   policy  .
   Because the bill would expand the purposes for which a
continuously appropriated fund may be used, it would result in an
appropriation.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 15459.10 is added to the Government Code, to
read:
   15459.10.  (a) Every general acute care hospital, as defined in
subdivision (a) of Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code, that
applies to the authority or any other public entity for financing
from the issuance of tax-exempt bonds shall provide, with the
application, a copy of the hospital's injury and illness prevention
program established, implemented, and maintained pursuant to Section
6401.7 of the Labor Code or through a collective bargaining agreement
that specifies how the general acute care hospital has implemented
or plans to implement a hospital patient and health care worker
injury prevention program. This program shall include a zero lift
 component that substitutes the manual lifting and
transferring of patients with powered patient transfer devices,
lifting devices, or lift teams.   policy. 
   (b) If a general acute care hospital does not have a hospital
patient and health care worker injury prevention program described in
subdivision (a), the application shall include a description of how
the applicant will allocate its financial resources for the planning,
purchase, construction, and installation of equipment to implement
 the zero lift component described in subdivision (a).
  a zero lift policy.  
   (c) For purposes of this section, a "zero lift policy" is a term
of act recognized internationally to mean replacing unassisted manual
lifting, repositioning, and transferring of patients with the use of
patient lift, repositioning, or transfer devices and lift teams.
Zero lift policy does not require the use of patient lift,
repositioning, or transfer devices if the individual's own needs
assessment indicates that it is safe for the patient and the employee
to utilize techniques not requiring the use of those devices.