Bill Text: CA AB601 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Health facilities: operations.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB601 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB601-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 07, 2019 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
| Assembly Bill | No. 601 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Bigelow |
February 14, 2019 |
An act to amend Section 120100 of 1266 of the Business and Professions Code, and to amend Section 1259 of, and to add Section 1279.5 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to public health. health facilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 601, as amended, Bigelow.
Communicable disease prevention and control. Health facilities: operations.
(1) Existing law provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of clinical laboratories and various clinical laboratory personnel by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law makes a person who violates those requirements guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires a clinical laboratory license and the license or renewal permit of each person performing tests therefor to be posted in the clinical laboratory.
This bill would instead require the license or renewal permit of each person to be posted only if the person performs tests in the clinical laboratory, and would allow a license of the clinical laboratory and each of those licensed test performers to be stored in a file, or electronically maintained. The bill
would require the licenses to be produced to the department upon request.
Because a violation of the requirement to produce a license to the department would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital to annually post on its internet website its updated policy concerning the availability of language assistance services to the public, and to annually provide that updated policy and a related description to the department. Existing law requires the department to make those updated policies available on its internet website.
This bill would repeal the requirements that a hospital provide those updated policies to the
department and that the department post those policies on its internet website.
(3) Existing law establishes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in the California Health and Human Services Agency to regulate health planning and research development, and designates OSHPD as the single state agency to collect health facility or clinical data. Existing law generally requires a health care facility to report specified data, including patient demographics, to OSHPD. Existing regulations require a general acute care hospital to submit to the State Department of Public Health various data, including demographic and medical data.
This bill would provide that a general acute care hospital that submits specified data to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is compliant with those regulatory reporting requirements.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The existing Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act defines the term “health officer.”
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to that provision.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 1266 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:1266.
The clinical laboratory license and the license or current renewal permit of each personSEC. 2.
Section 1259 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:1259.
(a) (1) The Legislature finds and declares that California is becoming a land of people whose languages and cultures give the state a global quality. The Legislature further finds and declares that access to basic health care services is the right of every resident of the state, and that access to information regarding basic health care services is an essential element of that right.(2) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature that when language or communication barriers exist between patients and the staff of any general acute care hospital, arrangements shall be made for interpreters or bilingual professional staff to ensure adequate and speedy communication between patients and staff.
(b) As used in this section:
(1) “Interpreter” means a person fluent in English and in the necessary second language, who can accurately speak, read, and readily interpret the necessary second language, or a person who can accurately sign and read sign language. Interpreters shall have the ability to translate the names of body parts and to describe competently symptoms and injuries in both languages. Interpreters may include members of the medical or professional staff.
(2) “Language or communication barriers” means:
(A) With respect to spoken language, barriers that are experienced by individuals who are limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking individuals who speak the same primary language and who comprise at least 5 percent of the population of
the geographical area served by the hospital or of the actual patient population of the hospital. In cases of dispute, the State Department of Public Health shall determine, based on objective data, whether the 5 percent population standard applies to a given hospital.
(B) With respect to sign language, American Sign Language, barriers that are experienced by individuals who are deaf and whose primary language is sign language. American Sign Language.
(c) To ensure access to health care information and
services for limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking residents and deaf residents, licensed general acute care hospitals shall:
(1) Review existing policies regarding interpreters for patients with limited-English proficiency and for patients who are deaf, including the availability of staff to act as interpreters.
(2) (A) (i)Adopt and review annually a policy for providing language assistance services to patients with language or communication barriers. The policy shall include procedures for providing, to the extent possible, as determined by the hospital, the use of an interpreter whenever
if a language or communication barrier exists, except when if the patient, after being informed of the availability of the interpreter service, chooses to use a family member or friend who volunteers to interpret. The procedures shall be designed to maximize efficient use of interpreters and minimize delays in providing interpreters to patients. The procedures shall ensure, to the extent possible, as determined by the hospital, that interpreters are available, either on the premises or accessible by telephone, 24 hours a day.
(ii)
(B) The hospital shall, on or before July 1, 2016, and every January 1 thereafter, of each year, make the updated policy and a notice of availability of language assistance services available to the public on its Internet Web site. internet website. The notice shall be in English and in the other languages most commonly spoken in the hospital’s service area. For purposes of this paragraph, the hospital shall make the notice available in the language of individuals who meet the definition of having a language barrier pursuant to
subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (b); however, (b). However, a hospital is not required to make the notice available in more than five languages other than English.
(B)(i)The hospital shall, on or before July 1, 2016, and every January 1 thereafter, transmit to the department a copy of the updated policy and shall include a description of its efforts to ensure adequate and speedy communication between patients with language or communication barriers and staff.
(ii)The
department shall make the updated policy available to the public on its Internet Web site.
(3) Develop, and post in conspicuous locations, notices that advise patients and their families of the availability of interpreters, the procedure for obtaining an interpreter, and the telephone numbers where complaints may be filed concerning interpreter service problems, including, but not limited to, a TDD number for the deaf or hard of hearing. The notices shall be posted, at a minimum, in the emergency room, the admitting area, the entrance, and in outpatient areas. Notices shall inform patients that interpreter services are available upon request, shall list the languages for which interpreter services are available, shall instruct patients to direct complaints regarding interpreter services to the department, and shall provide the local address and telephone number of the department, including, but not limited to, a TDD number
for the deaf or hard of hearing.
(4) Identify and record a patient’s primary language and dialect on one or more of the following: patient medical chart, hospital bracelet, bedside notice, or nursing card.
(5) Prepare and maintain as needed a list of interpreters who have been identified as proficient in sign language and in the languages of the population of the geographical area serviced who have the ability to translate the names of body parts, injuries, and symptoms.
(6) Notify employees of the hospital’s commitment to provide interpreters to all patients who request them.
(7) Review all standardized written forms, waivers, documents, and informational materials available to patients upon admission to determine which to translate into languages
other than English.
(8) Consider providing its nonbilingual staff with standardized picture and phrase sheets for use in routine communications with patients who have language or communication barriers.
(9) Consider developing community liaison groups to enable the hospital and the limited-English-speaking and deaf communities to ensure the adequacy of the interpreter services.
(d) Noncompliance with this section shall be reportable to licensing authorities.
(e) Section 1290 does not apply to this section.
SEC. 3.
Section 1279.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, immediately following Section 1279.3, to read:1279.5.
A general acute care hospital that submits data required in Section 70736 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is compliant with those regulatory reporting requirements.SEC. 4
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.“Health officer,” as used in the Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act (Section 27) includes a county, city, and district health officer, and a city and district health board, but does not include an advisory health
board.
