California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1357

Introduced by Assembly Member Roger Hernández

February 22, 2013

An act to amend Section 1317 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1357, as introduced, Roger Hernández. Emergency departments: diversion of patients.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, the licensing and regulations of health facilities, including, but not limited to, health facilities operating emergency departments.

Existing law requires a health facility maintaining or operating an emergency department to provide emergency services and care to any person requesting those services and care for any condition in which the person is in danger of loss of life, or serious injury or illness. Violation of these provisions is a crime.

This bill would require emergency room funds in the County of Los Angeles that were approved by voter initiative, which are collected from properties within the San Gabriel Valley, to remain in that geographic region of the county.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 1317 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:

1317.  

(a) Emergency services and care shall be provided to
any person requesting the services or care, or for whom services
or care is requested, for any condition in which the person is in
danger of loss of life, or serious injury or illness, at any health
facility licensed under this chapter that maintains and operates an
emergency department to provide emergency services to the public
when the health facility has appropriate facilities and qualified
personnel available to provide the services or care.

(b) In no event shall the provision of emergency services and
care be based upon, or affected by, the person’s ethnicity,
citizenship, age, preexisting medical condition, insurance status,
economic status, ability to pay for medical services, or any other
characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section
51 of the Civil Code, except to the extent that a circumstance such
as age, sex, preexisting medical condition, or physical or mental
disability is medically significant to the provision of appropriate
medical care to the patient.

(c) Neither the health facility, its employees, nor any physician
and surgeon, dentist, clinical psychologist, or podiatrist shall be
liable in any action arising out of a refusal to render emergency
services or care if the refusal is based on the determination,
exercising reasonable care, that the person is not suffering from
an emergency medical condition, or that the health facility does
not have the appropriate facilities or qualified personnel available
to render those services.

(d) Emergency services and care shall be rendered without first
questioning the patient or any other person as to his or her ability
to pay therefor. However, the patient or his or her legally
responsible relative or guardian shall execute an agreement to pay
therefor or otherwise supply insurance or credit information
promptly after the services are rendered.

(e) If a health facility subject to this chapter does not maintain
an emergency department, its employees shall nevertheless exercise
reasonable care to determine whether an emergency exists and
shall direct the persons seeking emergency care to a nearby facility
that can render the needed services, and shall assist the persons
seeking emergency care in obtaining the services, including
transportation services, in every way reasonable under the
circumstances.

(f) No act or omission of any rescue team established by any
health facility licensed under this chapter, or operated by the federal
or state government, a county, or by the Regents of the University
of California, done or omitted while attempting to resuscitate any
person who is in immediate danger of loss of life shall impose any
liability upon the health facility, the officers, members of the staff,
nurses, or employees of the health facility, including, but not
limited to, the members of the rescue team, or upon the federal or
state government or a county, if good faith is exercised.

(g) “Rescue team,” as used in this section, means a special group
of physicians and surgeons, nurses, and employees of a health
facility who have been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation
and have been designated by the health facility to attempt, in cases
of emergency, to resuscitate persons who are in immediate danger
of loss of life.

begin insert

(h) (1) This subdivision facilitates the continuation and
expansion of emergency medical services and trauma services in
the San Gabriel Valley.

end insert begin insert

(2) For the purpose of emergency room funds in the County of
Los Angeles that were approved by voter initiative in that county,
funds collected from properties within the San Gabriel Valley shall
remain in that geographic region of the county.

end insert begin insert

(3) Funds allocated pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be used
for the purposes intended by the voter initiative, within that
geographic area, to reduce ambulance diversion.

end insert begin delete

(h)

end delete

begin insert (i) end insert  This section shall not relieve a health facility of any duty
otherwise imposed by law upon the health facility for the
designation and training of members of a rescue team or for the
provision or maintenance of equipment to be used by a rescue
team.