BILL NUMBER: AB 1272	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  JULY 6, 2009
	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 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. 
   (1) Existing 
    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.
   This bill would require 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.
   (3) Flow patterns of trauma cases and geographic boundaries
regarding trauma and nontrauma cases.
   (4) The number and type of trauma cases necessary to assure that
trauma facilities will provide quality care to trauma cases referred
to them.
   (5) The resources and equipment needed by trauma facilities to
treat trauma cases.
   (6) The availability and qualifications of the health care
personnel, including physicians and surgeons, treating trauma cases
within a trauma facility.
   (7) Data collection regarding system operation and patient
outcome.
   (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.