Bill Text: CT SB00894 | 2013 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Concerning Persons Who Decontaminate Medical Instruments.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-07 - Public Hearing 03/15 [SB00894 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2013-SB00894-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 894
January Session, 2013		LCO No. 3225
		*03225_______PH_*
Referred to Committee on PUBLIC HEALTH
Introduced by:
(PH)

AN ACT CONCERNING PERSONS WHO DECONTAMINATE MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2013) (a) As used in this section:

(1) "Central service technician" means a person who (A) decontaminates, prepares, packages, sterilizes, stores and distributes reusable medical instruments or devices in a health care facility, whether such person is employed by the health care facility or provides services pursuant to a contract with the health care facility, and (B) is not a health care provider acting within the health care provider's scope of practice or a student or intern performing such functions under the direct supervision of a health care provider as part of the student's or intern's training or internship.

(2) "Health care facility" means an outpatient surgical facility, as defined in section 19a-493b of the general statutes, a short-term acute care general or children's hospital or a facility that provides outpatient surgical services as part of the outpatient surgery department of a short-term acute care hospital.

(3) "Health care provider" means any person or organization that provides health care services and is licensed in accordance with title 20 of the general statutes.

(b) No person shall engage in the practice of a central service technician unless the person is certified by the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management or the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution, Inc. or is certified or otherwise recognized by another professional organization that is deemed acceptable by the Commissioner of Public Health. Any person who has worked as a central service technician on or after October 1, 2011, may engage in the practice of a central service technician provided, not later than eighteen months after the date such person commenced work as a central service technician, such person meets the certification or recognition requirements of this subsection.

(c) No health care facility shall employ or contract for the services of a central service technician unless such person meets the requirements of subsection (b) of this section. Any health care facility that employs or contracts for the services of a central service technician on October 1, 2013, shall notify, in writing, such central service technician of his or her status as a central service technician.

(d) (1) Each central service technician shall complete a minimum of ten hours of continuing education annually. The continuing education shall be in areas related to the functions of a central service technician. A central service technician may request, in writing, an extension to complete such continuing education requirements from the International Association of Central Service Materiel Management or Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution, Inc. Said association or board may grant a central service technician described in subdivision (1) of subsection (b) of this section an extension to complete such continuing education requirements. A health care facility may grant a central service technician an extension to complete the continuing education requirements. (2) A request for an extension to complete the continuing education requirements under this subsection shall be granted for good cause, including, but not limited to, the medical disability or illness of a central service technician that requires an extended leave of absence from the central service technician's work or a central service technician's call to active service in the armed forces for specified military or emergency operations or actions. Any central service technician who is granted an extension to complete the continuing education requirements because of medical disability or illness, shall complete such requirements not later than ninety days after the medical disability or illness preventing completion of the continuing education requirement has been resolved. Any central service technician who is granted an extension to complete the continuing education requirements because of a call to active service in the armed forces, shall complete such requirements not later than ninety days after the central service technician's return to work from active duty.

(e) A health care facility shall, upon the request of a central service technician, verify, in writing, the central service technician's dates of employment or the contract period during which the central service technician provided services to the health care facility.

(f) The Commissioner of Public Health shall enforce the provisions of this section.

(g) The Commissioner of Public Health may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2013	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To require certification and continuing education for central service technicians.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]