BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 844|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 844
Author: Price (D)
Amended: 4/26/11
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/13/11
AYES: Hernandez, Strickland, Alquist, Anderson, De Le�n,
DeSaulnier, Rubio
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Health facilities: general acute care
hospitals
SOURCE : Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital
DIGEST : This bill allows, for the purposes of hospital
licensing requirements, dietary services to be provided
either at the hospital, or in another hospital immediately
adjacent to the hospital, as long as dedicated facilities
are in place to accommodate the delivery of these services,
and the Department of Public Health determines that all
applicable statutory and regulatory standards pertaining to
dieting services have been met.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
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1. Provides for the licensing and regulation of health
facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by
the Department of Public Health (DPH).
2. Requires, under statute and regulations, general acute
care hospitals to provide eight basic services:
medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory,
radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services, defined as
providing safe, satisfying, and nutritionally adequate
food for patients with appropriate staff, space,
equipment, and supplies.
3. Requires DPH and the Office of Statewide Health Planning
and Development (OSHPD) to develop regulations that
prescribe standards for the physical plant, staffing,
and services of health care facilities, including
general acute care hospitals.
4. Requires DPH to allow any general acute care hospital
facility that needs to relocate services on an interim
basis, as part of its approval plan for compliance with
hospital building or seismic standards, flexibility in
achieving compliance with licensing standards so long as
public safety is not compromised.
5. Specifies, under DPH regulations, several requirements
for dietary services in hospitals, including a
requirement that a registered dietician be employed on a
full-time or part-time basis, that sufficient dietetic
service personnel be employed to provide for the
nutritional needs of patients, a requirement that
equipment necessary for the proper preparation, serving,
and storage of food be provided, and a requirement that
food supplies meet certain standards for amount and
quality.
This bill allows, for the purposes of hospital licensing
requirements, dietary services to be provided either at the
hospital, or in another hospital immediately adjacent to
the hospital, as long as dedicated facilities are in place
to accommodate the delivery of these services, and DPH
determines that all applicable statutory and regulatory
standards pertaining to dieting services have been met.
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Background
General acute care hospitals are required to offer eight
basic services: medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia,
laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services.
They are also permitted to offer several different types of
supplemental services, including emergency medical, burn
center, psychiatric, intensive care newborn, cardiovascular
surgery, chronic dialysis, and radiation therapy services.
Health facilities, including hospitals, are permitted to
request program flexibility to use alternate concepts,
methods, procedures, techniques, equipment, personnel, as
long as statutory requirements are met, with the prior
written approval of DPH or OSHPD. However, this does not
generally extend to the relocation of services outside of
the hospital campus, or the sharing of services with other
hospitals, as is proposed by this bill.
DPH regulations outline several requirements for dietary
services that hospitals are required to meet, including a
requirement that a registered dietician be employed on a
full-time or part-time basis, that sufficient dietetic
service personnel be employed to provide for the
nutritional needs of patients, a requirement that equipment
necessary for the proper preparation, serving, and storage
of food be provided, and a requirement that food supplies
meet certain standards for amount and quality.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/16/11)
Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital (source)
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
this bill provides an exemption to the requirement that
general acute care hospitals have dietary services on the
hospital property, when dietary services can be accessed by
an adjacent building with dedicated facilities to
accommodate their delivery. The author's office states
that this is needed to help Hollywood Presbyterian
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Hospital, which must temporarily shut down its dietary
services department in order to accommodate seismic
upgrades to its emergency room. While construction is
occurring, the hospital must use the dietary services from
the hospital immediately adjacent until construction is
completed.
The author's office argues that in the case of Hollywood
Presbyterian Hospital, the only other option would be to
shut down the emergency room, which would result in laying
off hospital workers and require a rerouting of
approximately 35,000 emergency room visits per year.
CTW:mw 5/16/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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