BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 127|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 127
Author: Calderon (D)
Amended: 8/27/10
Vote: 21
PRIOR SENATE VOTES NOT RELEVANT
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not available
SUBJECT : Automatic external defibrillators: health
studios
SOURCE : Anytime Fitness
DIGEST : This bill removes the July 1, 2012 sunset date
for existing requirements that every health studio acquires
and maintains an automatic external defibrillator, and
train personnel in its use thereby extending these
requirements indefinitely.
Assembly Amendments deleted the version of the bill that
passed the Senate regarding mortgages, and the bill now
removes a sunset on requirements for health care studios
and develops regulations for health studios and trained
staff.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
1. Provides immunity from civil liability to any person who
completes a designated CPR course and who, in good
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faith, renders emergency CPR at the scene of an
emergency, without the expectation of receiving
compensation for providing the emergency care.
2. Exempts from civil liability any local agency, entity of
state or local government, or other public or private
organization which sponsors, authorizes, supports,
finances, or supervises the training of citizens in CPR.
3. Provides immunity from liability for certain trained
persons who in good faith and without compensation use
an Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) in rendering
emergency care or treatment at the scene of an
emergency. This qualified immunity does not apply in
the case of personal injury or wrongful death resulting
from the AED operator's gross negligence or willful or
wanton misconduct. Nor does it apply to the
manufacturer, designer, developer, distributor,
installer, or supplier of an AED or defibrillator.
4. Substantially relaxed the requirement that building
owners and others who acquire AEDs must ensure that
expected AED users complete an accepted CPR and AED
course as a condition of immunizing that building owner
from any liability arising from the use of the acquired
AED. Maintained the requirement that any immunities
from civil liabilities in this context would not apply
in cases of gross negligence or willful or wanton
misconduct.
5. For a five-year period beginning July 7, 2007, requires
a health studio, as defined, to acquire, maintain, and
train personnel in the use of AEDs, as specified.
Requires health studios to maintain AED-trained
personnel on site during all of their normal operating
hours.
This bill:
1. Removes the July 1, 2012 sunset date for existing
requirements that every health studio acquires and
maintain an AED, and train personnel in its use;
2. Requires a health studio that allows its members access
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to its facility during times when it does not have an
employee on the premises to do the following:
A. Require all employees who work on the health
studio's premises complete a training course, within
30 days of beginning employment, in cardiopulmonary
resuscitation and automated external defibrillator
use that complies with the regulations adopted by the
Emergency Medical Services Authority, and the
Standards of the American Heart Association or the
American Red Cross.
B. Ensure that a trained employee is on the health
studio's premises for no fewer than 50 hours per
week.
C. Inform a member, at the time the member contracts
for the use of the health studio, that a trained
employee will not be on the health studio's premises
at all times.
D. Require the health studio to provide, on or
before January 1, 2012, and before January 1 of each
of the following three years, a report to the
Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees of the
Legislature that contains the following:
? The average number of hours per week that
the health studio is staffed.
? The average number of hours per week that
the health studio was staffed previously.
? The total number of reported cardiac
incidents that have occurred during unstaffed
hours, and whether any of these incidents resulted
in death.
E. Deny access to the health studio when an employee
is not present if the health studio operates in a
space that is larger than 6,000 square feet.
Background
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An AED is a medical device used to administer an electric
shock through the chest wall to the heart after someone
suffers cardiac arrest. Built-in computers assess the
patient's heart rhythm, determine whether the person is in
cardiac arrest, and signal whether to administer the shock.
Audible cues guide the user through the process. Portable
AEDs are available upon a prescription from a medical
authority. Their general cost is between $1,500 and $2,000
according to the American Heart Association.
According to research, the move in the last few years to
increase the number of AEDs available to first responder
units such as police and fire, as well as in high-traffic
areas, such as airports and casinos, has been met with
overwhelming community support. A survey of worldwide news
sources indicates that AEDs have been responsible for many
saved lives after cardiac arrest incidents and that AEDs
are in such high demand that schools and local communities
have taken to outside fundraising to purchase the
equipment.
Across the United States there has been a major push for
wide spread access to AEDs, especially where children are
concerned. A high school student in New York State had a
heart attack after competing in a wrestling match. A
bystander trained in both CPR and AED use came to his aid
and attempted CPR but did not get a response. She then
called for the AED, which are mandated by New York Law in
every school, and was able to bring the young man back. As
of January 22, 2006, in New York, everyone who is trained
in CPR will also have to be trained to use AEDs as well.
In Georgia, one neighborhood raised funds to purchase an
AED after a boy was struck by a baseball while playing and
could not be resuscitated. Local fire departments in
Georgia are pushing for communities to pool funds and
purchase the units for neighborhood use.
The AEDs have been used successfully in such places as
California's Ontario Airport, and Connecticut's Foxwoods
Casino. According to a Foxwoods' security director, the
casino has 15 AEDs on the property and has used them more
than 40 times in the last four years, and more than 300
security personnel and emergency medical technicians at the
casino are trained to use the machines. In the Minneapolis
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Airport, passengers waiting for flights can receive basic
training on how to use the machine in about 5 minutes. The
passengers are trained by firefighters at stations in the
airport and the program is funded by Medtronic which makes
AEDs. The goal of all these programs is to make AEDs as
familiar as fire extinguishers and as readily available to
the general public. The FDA has even approved of their
over-the-counter purchase without a prescription.
Comments
AB 1312 (Swanson), introduced in 2009, sought to extend the
sunset in the existing law governing health studios, and to
extend the requirements to golf courses and amusement
parks. That measure was vetoed by the Governor.
In his veto message, the Governor stated that "there is no
compelling need to extend the 2012 sunset date at this
time, especially when a reasonable exemption for a
particular type of business model was sought and rejected.
I am not willing to extend this law to additional
businesses until this problem is addressed."
The author contends that clarification of Health and Safety
Code Section 104113 is necessary because the current law
could be construed to prevent health studios from allowing
access to clubs during periods when staff is not present.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/10)
Anytime Fitness (source)
American Heart Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : This bill, sponsored by Anytime
Fitness, Inc., seeks to clarify Section 104113 of the
Health and Safety Code to require that all health studios
ensure that a trained staff member proficient in the use of
an AED is available during staffed operating hours. Absent
this change, current law could be construed to prevent
health studios from allowing access to clubs during periods
when staff is not present. In support the author states:
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Currently, Section 104113 requires that health studios
ensure that a trained staff member proficient in the
use of AED's is available during normal operating
hours. SB 127 clarifies that the obligation to have
trained staff present applies during staffed operating
hours. Current law does not take into account that
some health studios are open 24 hours a day and
operate on a key access membership system. These
health studios provide convenient access to their
members, typically at a lower cost than fully staffed
clubs. SB 127 is intended to ensure that health club
patrons will continue to have the option to access
affordable, 24 hour health studios.
The current law seeks to encourage the maintenance and
use of AEDs in health studios by offering "Good
Samaritan" immunities to the health studio employees
who render emergency care or treatment with the AEDs,
from civil damages arising from an act or omission in
the course of rendering that emergency care or
treatment.
Senate Bill 127 creates a waiver of the "Good
Samaritan" immunities for those health studios that
allow its members access to its facilities during
operating hours when employees trained in the use of
AEDs are not present, and further waives the
affirmative defense of primary assumption of the risk,
whether express or implied, as to a claim arising out
of the absence of trained staff.
CTW:nl 8/30/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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