BILL NUMBER: AB 1862	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Logue

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2012

   An act to add Section 1250.9 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health facilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1862, as introduced, Logue. Health facilities: licensure.
   Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health
facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by the State
Department of Public Health. Existing law requires the department,
when an applicant for a general acute care hospital license meets the
applicable requirements of licensure, to issue a single consolidated
general acute care hospital license that includes more than one
physical plant maintained and operated on separate premises or that
has multiple licenses for a single health facility on the same
premises, if any of certain criteria are met. One of these criteria
is that the physical plants maintained and operated by the licensee
that are to be covered by the single consolidated license are located
not more than 15 miles apart.
   This bill would require the department to issue a single
consolidated license to certain general acute care hospitals that
include more than one physical plant maintained and operated on
separate premises, if one of the physical plants is used as an
emergency center that provides service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
and other specified conditions are met. The bill would authorize the
transfer of ownership of a freestanding emergency center if
specified conditions are met. It would also require the department to
establish a committee to evaluate the quality and efficiency of
services and improvement in patient access provided by freestanding
emergency centers and provide a specified report to the Legislature
and the Governor.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) There are currently 241 freestanding emergency departments
(FSEDS) in the United States.
   (b) FSEDS are regulated by state licensing requirements and
federal certification requirements.
   (c) Many emergency departments in the state are overcrowded.
   (d) Eighteen hospitals in the state and their respective emergency
departments have closed in the last 10 years.
   (e) FSEDS have the ability to provide services to patients who may
not otherwise have access to emergency services.
  SEC. 2.  Section 1250.9 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   1250.9.  (a) Notwithstanding Section 1250.8 OR any other law, upon
application of a general acute care hospital that meets all the
criteria of paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (b) of
Section 1250.8, other applicable requirements of licensure, and is
approved to provide emergency center special services, the department
shall issue a single consolidated license where that hospital
includes more than one physical plant maintained and operated on
separate premises if one of the physical plants is used as an
emergency center that provides service 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, and either of the following conditions is met:
   (1) The general acute care hospital is a rural general acute care
hospital and the emergency center is located within 30 miles of the
primary physical plant of the hospital and at least 20 miles from an
emergency center owned or operated by another general acute care
hospital.
   (2) The general acute care hospital is not a rural general acute
care hospital and the emergency center is located within 15 miles of
the primary physical plant of the hospital and at least seven miles
from an emergency center owned or operated by another general acute
care hospital.
   (b) The department shall issue not more than 12 consolidated
licenses pursuant to this section and not more than six consolidated
licenses to rural general acute care hospitals.
   (c) A general acute care hospital, including a rural general acute
care hospital, that continuously operates for at least three years
an approved emergency center at a physical plant that is separate
from the primary physical plant of the hospital may transfer
ownership of the emergency center to another general acute care
hospital that is approved to provide emergency center special
services, if the conditions of subdivisions (a) and (b) will be met
subsequent to the transfer.
  SEC. 3.  The State Department of Public Health shall establish a
committee to evaluate the quality and efficiency of services and
improvement in patient access provided by freestanding emergency
centers established pursuant to a consolidated license issued
pursuant to Section 1250.9 of the Health and Safety Code. The
membership of the committee shall include a physician and surgeon who
has experience providing medical services within a rural
freestanding emergency department, a physician and surgeon who has
experience providing medical services within an urban freestanding
emergency department, a nurse who has experience working within a
rural freestanding emergency department, a nurse who has experience
working within an urban freestanding emergency department, a patient
who was treated within an urban freestanding emergency department, a
patient who was treated within a rural freestanding emergency
department, a representative from a rural general acute care hospital
with a freestanding emergency center, and a representative from an
urban general acute care hospital with a freestanding emergency
center. The committee shall be established within five years after
the first emergency center is established pursuant to a consolidated
license issued pursuant to Section 1250.9 of the Health and Safety
Code. The committee shall prepare and submit its evaluation to the
Legislature and the Governor within six months of the first meeting
of the committee.