BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 503
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
503 (Rodriguez)
As Amended March 23, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+--------------------|
|Health |17-0 |Bonta, Maienschein, | |
| | |Bonilla, Burke, | |
| | |Chávez, Chiu, Gomez, | |
| | |Lackey, Nazarian, | |
| | |Patterson, | |
| | |Ridley-Thomas, | |
| | |Rodriguez, Santiago, | |
| | |Steinorth, Thurmond, | |
| | |Waldron, Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+-----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |16-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Holden, Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, Weber, | |
| | |Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 503
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SUMMARY: Allows a health facility to release patient-identifiable
medical information to an emergency medical services (EMS)
provider and to a local emergency medical services agency (LEMSA)
when specific data elements are requested for the purpose of
quality assessment and improvement. Requires the Emergency
Medical Services Authority (EMSA) to develop minimum standards for
the implementation of this data collection system.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill would have minor staff costs to EMSA to
revise existing regulations, estimated at around $20,000 (existing
federal grant funds).
COMMENTS: According to the author, prehospital providers of
emergency medical care or transport, such as ambulance companies,
need patient-identifiable outcomes in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of their clinical and operational procedures to
improve patient care and outcomes. The author further states that
public policy should permit and encourage quality improvement and
systems effectiveness between hospitals and prehospital emergency
service providers. The author argues that while federal law
allows this to occur, state law does not and this bill would allow
such disclosures to occur under state law.
In 2012, EMSA received a grant from the California HealthCare
Foundation (CHCF) to increase the accessibility and accuracy of
prehospital data for public, policy, academic and research
purposes to facilitate system evaluation and improvement. The
grant included a review of EMSA's existing system, the development
of a core measures program, and engagement with LEMSAs to
facilitate uniform reporting. As part of the project, EMSA has
begun implementation of the new national data standards and
integrating electronic health information systems.
AB 503
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The CHCF-funded projected revealed: 1) that the existing system
had a number of weaknesses that made it difficult for EMSA to
validate EMS information for reporting, impacting its suitability
for statewide sustainability and transition to the new national
data standards; 2) that variability in data collection methodology
(in some cases related to the use of paper vs. electronic patient
records) limited the usefulness of data submitted; and, 3) the
lack of hospital outcome data, particularly for cardiac arrest
cases limited the ability of LEMSAs to obtain universal outcome
data. The capacity of the current system was also assessed by the
Health Services Advisory Group, an External Quality Review
Organization network contractor, which found similar weaknesses to
those identified in the CHCF core measures project. The
recommendations for EMSA included better standardization of data
collection from LEMSAs.
The sponsor of this bill, the California Hospital Association
(CHA), writes in support that prehospital EMS providers, such as
ambulance companies, need patient-identifiable outcome information
to evaluate the effectiveness of their clinical and operational
procedures to improve their patent safety and quality outcomes,
particularly for emergency services programs such as trauma,
stroke, and STEMI (ST segment elevation myocardial infarction - a
type of heart attack). CHA maintains that public policy should
permit and encourage quality improvement activities between
providers and hospitals to improve quality and patient safety and
ultimately improve emergency patient survival rates.
Analysis Prepared by:
Patty Rodgers / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN:
0000178
AB 503
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