BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 444
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Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
444 (Gipson) - As Introduced February 23, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill delays, until January 1, 2017, the date by which
hospitals are prohibited from using epidural (spinal) connector
devices that would fit into a connector other than the type it
was intended for.
AB 444
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FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible state fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, hospitals and other
healthcare facilities depend on a variety of catheters,
tubing, and syringes to deliver medications and other
substances to patients through vascular, enteral feeding,
respiratory, and epidural delivery systems. Because many
connectors are interchangeable, the potential exists for
serious medical errors if different systems are connected by
mistake. The author indicates an international effort led by
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to
develop and implement standards for non-interchangeable
connectors is almost complete. AdvaMed, the sponsors of this
legislation, contend an additional delay in the requirement to
use non-interchangeable connectors for epidural connections is
critical for patient safety, because the epidural connector
design was recently found to still have the ability to allow
for misconnection with an IV and requires more time for
redesign and testing.
2)Prior Legislation. SB 158 (Florez), Chapter 294, Statutes of
2008, addressed a number of patient safety issues, including a
requirement that, as of January 1, 2011, health facilities
must use separate unique connectors for IV, enteral feeding
and epidural connections to prevent adverse events associated
with misconnections.
AB 818 (Hernandez), Chapter 476, Statutes of 2009, delayed the
effective dates in SB 158 (Florez) and established new
deadlines - January 1, 2013, for enteral feeding and IV
AB 444
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connections and January 1, 2014, for epidural connections or
by a period of time following the publication of new ISO
design standards.
AB 1867 (Pan) further delayed the three deadlines until
January 1, 2016, to ensure adequate time for development of
ISO standards.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081