BILL NUMBER: SB 630 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 4, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Senator Alquist
FEBRUARY 18, 2011
An act to amend Sections 130060 and 130064 of, and to add
Sections 130065.1 and 130066 to, add Section 1317.10
to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities
, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately
.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 630, as amended, Alquist. Hospitals: seismic safety.
licensure.
(1) Existing
Existing law provides for the licensure of health
facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by the State
Department of Public Health.
Existing law requires emergency services and care to be
provided to any person requesting the services or care, or for whom
services or care is requested, for any condition in which the person
is in danger of loss of life, or serious injury or illness, at any
licensed health facility that maintains and operates an emergency
department to provide emergency services to the public when the
health facility has appropriate facilities and qualified personnel
available to provide the services or care.
Existing law prohibits the transfer of a person needing
emergency services and care from one hospital to another for any
nonmedical reason, unless specified conditions are met, including a
requirement that the person be examined and evaluated by a physician
and surgeon.
This bill would require, notwithstanding the above-described
prohibition, for purposes of providing emergency services and care to
patients with conditions related to active labor presenting to the
emergency department of Stanford Hospital and Clinics, that Stanford
Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at
Stanford be treated as a single licensed facility if the two
hospitals have entered into a specified agreement. The bill also
would make findings and declarations regarding the necessity for a
special statute.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Existing law, the Alfred E. Alquist Hospital Facilities Seismic
Safety Act of 1983, establishes, under the jurisdiction of the Office
of Statewide Health Planning and Development, a program of seismic
safety building standards for certain hospitals constructed on and
after March 7, 1973. Existing law authorizes the office to assess an
application fee for the review of facilities design and construction,
and requires that full and complete plans be submitted to the office
for review and approval.
Existing law requires that, after January 1, 2008, any general
acute care hospital building that is determined to be a potential
risk of collapse or pose significant loss of life be used only for
nonacute care hospital purposes, except that the office may grant a
5-year extension of that deadline, under prescribed circumstances,
for both structural and nonstructural requirements. Existing law also
authorizes the office to grant an additional extension if the
hospital building meets designated criteria, including appropriately
retrofitting the facility, as specified.
This bill would, among other things, revise the conditions that a
hospital owner would be required to meet in order for the office to
grant an additional extension. This bill would authorize the
department to revoke the extension if the construction is abandoned
or suspended for at least 6 months, except as specified.
(2) Existing law authorizes the office to grant a 3-year extension
of the 5-year extension in lieu of the previously described
additional extension under specified conditions. Existing law also
authorizes a grant of an additional extension of up to 2 years if
specified criteria are met. Existing law requires a hospital owner
that applies for this extension to pay to the office a fee for
reporting requirements for this extension.
This bill would repeal the office's authority to grant the
additional extension of up to 2 years.
This bill would require a hospital that has an SPC-1 building to
post a specified sign at all public entrances to the building and
certify to the office that it has complied with specified
requirements. It would also subject a hospital, that fails to post
pursuant to the requirement, to civil penalties.
Vote: majority 2/3 . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's
Hospital at Stanford have a unique circumstance in which both
hospitals are colocated on the same hospital campus. The hospitals
occupy adjacent buildings that are physically attached inpatient
facilities connected by an interior corridor so that passage from the
emergency department at Stanford Hospital and Clinics to the
obstetrics unit at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
does not require exposure to the external environment.
(b) The emergency physicians at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and
the obstetricians at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
have clinical privileges to practice at both hospitals.
(c) Stanford Hospital and Clinics does not have an obstetrics unit
and is not licensed for perinatal services but Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital at Stanford does have an obstetrics unit and is
licensed for perinatal services.
(d) Without this special statute, patients in active labor who
arrive at the Stanford Hospital and Clinics Emergency Department can
face up to a 90-minute delay to satisfy the existing law's
requirements to be transferred to the obstetrics unit at Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
(e) Due to the unique physical arrangement between Stanford
Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at
Stanford, the average time to transport a patient from the emergency
department at Stanford Hospital and Clinics to the obstetrics unit at
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is five minutes.
(f) On average, 29 patients arrive at the Stanford Hospital and
Clinics Emergency Department each month in active labor and in need
of perinatal services.
(g) These patients and their unborn children would receive
appropriate care at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
because of the dedicated obstetrics unit.
(h) It is in the interest of the state and women and children to
provide the timely transfer of women in active labor who arrive at
the Stanford Hospital and Clinics emergency department to the
obstetrics unit at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Hospital.
SEC. 2. Section 1317.10 is added to the Health and
Safety Code, to read:
1317.10. Notwithstanding Sections 1317 and 1317.2, Stanford
Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at
Stanford shall be treated as a single licensed facility for purposes
of providing emergency services and care to patients with conditions
related to active labor presenting to the emergency department at
Stanford Hospital and Clinics if the two hospitals have entered into
an agreement in which Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
accepts and provides emergency services and care to all patients who
are in active labor presenting to the emergency department at
Stanford Hospital and Clinics, without regard to insurance status,
financial status, or other nonclinical factors.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that a
special law is necessary and that a general law cannot be made
applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the
California Constitution because of the unique circumstances where
Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
at Stanford are physically attached inpatient facility buildings
connected by an interior corridor so that passage from the emergency
department at Stanford Hospital and Clinics to the obstetrics unit at
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford does not require
exposure to the external environment.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to more expeditiously transfer patients who are
presenting labor conditions to a hospital that may provide more
specialized labor care, it is necessary for this act to take effect
immediately. All matter omitted in this version of the bill
appears in the bill as introduced in the Senate, February 18, 2011.
(JR11)
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