BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 503
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
503 (Rodriguez)
As Amended July 7, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 78-0 | (April 23, |SENATE: |36-0 | (August 27, |
| | |2015) | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: HEALTH
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.
Authorizes the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) to
develop minimum standards for the implementation of this data
collection system.
The Senate amendments:
1)Add registered nurse and physician to the definition of EMS
provider for the purposes of this bill.
2)Authorize instead of require EMSA to develop minimum standards
AB 503
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for the implementation of this data collection system.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
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.
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
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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.
This bill has no opposition.
Analysis Prepared by:
Patty Rodgers / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 FN:
0001354