BILL NUMBER: AB 1272 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 23, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hill
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Ammiano)
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to amend Sections 1797.222 and 1798.169 of the
Health and Safety Code, and to amend Sections 21661.5 and 21662.1 of
the Public Utilities Code, relating to public health.
An act to amend Section 1798.161 of, and to add Section 1797.259 to,
the Health and Safety Code, and to add Section 21099.7 to the Public
Resources Code, relating to public health.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1272, as amended, Hill. Emergency medical services: trauma
center: helicopter landing pad.
Existing
(1) Existing law, the Emergency
Medical Services System and Prehospital Emergency Medical Care
Personnel Act, establishes the Emergency Medical Services Authority
within the California Health and Human Services Agency to, among
other things, provide statewide coordination of county emergency
medical service programs, including, but not limited to, designated
trauma centers, and to administer the Trauma Care Fund.
Existing law, the State Aeronautics Act, sets forth provisions
regulating aeronautics in California under the jurisdiction of the
Department of Transportation, including, but not limited to, the
planning, siting, and approval, of airports, including, but not
limited to, helicopter landing pads. The law provides counties and
cities with specified authority over the approval of helicopter
landing pads.
This bill would provide require
that those provisions of law shall not be construed as
authorizing a city, county, or city and county to prohibit a trauma
center from installing a helicopter landing pad at or near its
facility for the purpose of receiving emergency trauma care patients,
and a local emergency medical service to include
within its trauma system plan the provision of air transport of
trauma patients to, and between, trauma centers, if the local
emergency medical service agency elects to implement a trauma system.
The bill would make conforming changes.
(2) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a
project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a
significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative
declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.
CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative
declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the
environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that
effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as
revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.
This bill would provide that, for a project related to the
construction of helicopter landing pads on trauma centers, a lead
agency is not required to consider the noise impacts associated with
the use of the helicopter landing pads in its environmental review
conducted pursuant to CEQA.
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 1797.259 is added to the
Health and Safety Code , immediately following
Section 1797.258 , to read:
1797.259. A local EMS agency that elects to implement a trauma
system shall include, within its trauma system plan, provisions for
air transport of trauma patients to, and between, trauma centers.
SEC. 2. Section 1798.161 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
1798.161. (a) The authority shall submit draft regulations
specifying minimum standards for the implementation of trauma care
systems to the commission on or before July 1, 1984, and shall adopt
the regulations on or before July 1, 1985. These regulations shall
provide specific requirements for the care of trauma cases and shall
ensure that the trauma care system is fully coordinated with all
elements of the existing emergency medical services system. The
regulations shall be adopted as provided in Section 1799.50, and
shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:
(1) Prehospital care management guidelines for triage and
transportation of trauma cases.
(2) Transportation of trauma patients to, and between, trauma
centers by ground and air ambulance.
(2)
(3) Flow patterns of trauma cases and
geographic boundaries regarding trauma and nontrauma cases.
(3)
(4) The number and type of trauma cases
necessary to assure that trauma facilities will provide quality care
to trauma cases referred to them.
(4)
(5) The resources and equipment needed by
trauma facilities to treat trauma cases.
(5)
(6) The availability and qualifications of
the health care personnel, including physicians and surgeons,
treating trauma cases within a trauma facility.
(6)
(7) Data collection regarding system
operation and patient outcome.
(7)
(8) Periodic performance evaluation of the
trauma system and its components.
(b) The authority may grant an exception to a portion of the
regulations adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) upon substantiation
of need by a local EMS agency that, as defined in the regulations,
compliance with that requirement would not be in the best interests
of the persons served within the affected local EMS area.
SEC. 3. Section 21099.7 is added to the
Public Resources Code , to read:
21099.7. For a project related to the construction of a
helicopter landing pad on a trauma center, a lead agency, in
compliance with this division, is not required to consider the noise
impact caused by the use of the proposed helicopter landing pad in
its environmental review of the project.
SECTION 1. Section 1797.222 of the Health and
Safety Code is amended to read:
1797.222. (a) A county, upon the recommendation of its local EMS
agency, may adopt ordinances governing the transport of a patient who
is receiving care in the field from prehospital emergency medical
personnel, when the patient meets specific criteria for trauma, burn,
or pediatric centers adopted by the local EMS agency.
(b) The ordinances shall, to the extent possible, ensure that
individual patients receive appropriate medical care while protecting
the interests of the community at large by making maximum use of
available emergency medical care resources. These ordinances shall be
consistent with Sections 1797.106, 1798.100, and 1798.102, and shall
not conflict with any state regulations or any guidelines adopted by
the Emergency Medical Service Authority.
(c) This section shall not be construed as prohibiting the
helicopter program of the Department of the California Highway Patrol
from a role in providing emergency medical services when the best
medically qualified person at the scene of an accident determines it
is in the best interests of any injured party.
(d) This section shall not be construed as authorizing a county or
city and county to prohibit a trauma center from installing a
helicopter landing pad at or near its facility for the purpose of
receiving emergency trauma care patients.
SEC. 2. Section 1798.169 of the Health and
Safety Code is amended to read:
1798.169. (a) Nothing in this article shall be construed as
restricting the use of a helicopter of the Department of the
California Highway Patrol from performing missions which the
department determines are in the best interests of the people of the
State of California.
(b) Nothing in this article shall be construed as authorizing a
city, county, or city and county to prohibit a trauma center from
installing a helicopter landing pad at or near its facility for the
purpose of receiving emergency trauma care patients.
SEC. 3. Section 21661.5 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
21661.5. (a) No political subdivision, any of its officers or
employees, or any person may submit any application for the
construction of a new airport to any local, regional, state, or
federal agency unless the plan for construction is first approved by
the board of supervisors of the county, or the city council of the
city, in which the airport is to be located and unless the plan is
submitted to the appropriate commission exercising powers pursuant to
Article 3.5 (commencing with Section 21670) of Chapter 4 of Part 1
of Division 9, and acted upon by that commission in accordance with
the provisions of that article.
(b) A county board of supervisors or a city council may, pursuant
to Section 65100 of the Government Code, delegate its responsibility
under this section for the approval of a plan for construction of new
helicopter landing and takeoff areas, to the county or city planning
agency.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing a
city, county, or city and county to prohibit a trauma center from
installing a helicopter landing pad at or near its facility for the
purpose of receiving emergency trauma care patients.
SEC. 4. Section 21662.1 of the Public Utilities
Code is amended to read:
21662.1. (a) At or as near as practical to the site of a medical
emergency and at a medical facility, an officer authorized by a
public safety agency may designate an area for the landing and taking
off of an emergency service helicopter, in accordance with
regulations established not later than January 1, 1989, pursuant to
Section 21243.
(b) "Public safety agency" means any city, county, state agency,
or special purpose district authorized to arrange for emergency
medical services.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing a
city, county, or city and county to prohibit a trauma center from
installing a helicopter landing pad at or near its facility for the
purpose of receiving emergency trauma care patients.