Bill Text: MS HB400 | 2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Alexander Blouin Mississippi Medical Emergency Crash Cart Requirement Act; create.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2017-01-31 - Died In Committee [HB400 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2017-HB400-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2017 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Human Services; Revenue and Expenditure General Bills
By: Representative Johnson (87th) (By Request)
House Bill 400
AN ACT TO BE KNOWN AS THE ALEXANDER BLOUIN MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL EMERGENCY CRASH CART REQUIREMENT ACT; TO MAKE CERTAIN LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS; TO REQUIRE FULLY EQUIPPED AND OPERATIONAL MEDICAL EMERGENCY CRASH CARTS AT ALL MISSISSIPPI PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS, STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND STATE BUILDINGS; TO PRESCRIBE THE MINIMUM TYPES OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT THAT MEDICAL EMERGENCY CRASH CARTS MUST CONTAIN; TO PROVIDE THAT HIGH SCHOOLS, STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND STATE BUILDINGS SHALL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLY WITH PROVISIONS FOR REGULARLY SCHEDULED INSPECTIONS CONCERNING THE PROVISION OF FULLY EQUIPPED AND OPERATIONAL AND SUFFICIENT NUMBERS OF MEDICAL EMERGENCY CRASH CARTS; TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION TO JOINTLY DEVELOP A WEBPAGE CONTAINING INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPER USE OF THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT CONTAINED ON THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY CRASH CARTS REQUIRED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, STATE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND STATE BUILDINGS, AND TO HAVE A LINK AVAILABLE TO THAT WEBPAGE ON THE OFFICIAL STATE OF MISSISSIPPI WEBSITE AND ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL WEBSITES; TO AMEND SECTION 37-17-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING PROVISIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Alexander Blouin Mississippi Medical Emergency Crash Cart Requirement Act."
SECTION 2. The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) The failure to act in a cardiac or other medical emergency can lead to unnecessary deaths. Specifically, with regard to cardiac emergencies, studies have found that immediate bystander CPR in a cardiac emergency can double or triple a person's chance of survival. Yet, despite this importance, the American Heart Association reports that seventy percent (70%) of Americans feel unqualified to act during a cardiac emergency. In the United States in 2014, there were an average of nine hundred (900) incidents of cardiac arrest per day, for a total of three hundred eighty-three thousand (383,000) out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of these cardiac arrests occurred at the person's home. Therefore, as the American Heart Association points out, by learning and performing CPR, "the life you safe with CPR is most likely to be a loved one." It is the intent of this act to provide the necessary and accessible medical equipment required in the event of an emergency.
(b) In addition to the unnecessary deaths resulting from cardiac-related emergencies, there are also many other medical emergencies where immediate first aid is required, but unfortunately, not administered. These emergencies include, but are not limited to, incidents involving asphyxiation, choking, drowning, motor vehicle accidents, accidents involving external bleeding, burns, poisoning, stroke, shock, bone fractures, and head, neck and spinal injuries. Unfortunately, many of these victims pass away unnecessarily, and would have been able to survive if immediate bystander first aid was promptly administered. For instance, the Red Cross reported that in 2008, one hundred eighteen thousand (118,000) Americans passed away from unintentional injuries, and twenty-five million seven hundred thousand (25,700,000) became disabled due to the unintentional injuries. Much of this loss of life and disability could have been alleviated if the average American were more trained and skilled in both CPR and first aid procedures. In order to gain this crucial, life-saving knowledge and experience, it is important to start young. Therefore, the Red Cross of Great Britain recommends that "schools make life-saving skills and resilience building part of core subjects like science and PE, and their studies show that first aid lessons give young people life-saving skills and the confidence to use them, and this is why the British Red Cross has launched the Pupil, Citizen, life-saver campaign." (Mulligan, The Independent).
(c) In light of and in respect for the lives lost, and in memory of Alexander Blouin, it is the intent of this act to add to the accessible medical equipment necessary to successfully treat emergency situation, and thereby save lives.
SECTION 3. As used in this act, the following terms shall be defined as provided in this section:
(a) "Asphyxiation" means to cause to lose consciousness or die by and interfering with normal breathing, as by gas or other noxious agents or chemicals, to choke, suffocate, or smother.
(b) "Bone fracture" means is a broken bone, which can range from a very thin crack to a complete break of the bone.
(c) "Burn" means to endanger or damage, by combustion, or to be consumed, partially or wholly, by fire or other source.
(d) "Cardiac arrest" means a condition when the heart stops pumping blood to be provided through circulation throughout the body. Cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. A victim of sudden cardiac arrest collapses suddenly, becomes unresponsive to gentle shaking, and stops breathing normally.
(e) "Choking" means to stop the breath of by squeezing or obstructing the windpipe; to strangle; to stifle.
(f) "CPR" means cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which is an emergency life-saving procedure that includes a combination of medically devised techniques, including chest compressions, designed to pump the heart and get blood circulating and deliver oxygen to the brain and other vital organs until emergency medical treatment becomes available.
(g) "Defibrillator" or "AED" means a medical device that can be used in a cardiac medical emergency that can be used to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.
(h) "Drowning" means to die under water or other liquid of suffocation.
(i) "External bleeding" means the loss of blood from the body, and usually is associated with a wound.
(j) "Head, neck, and spinal injury" means an injury involving these portions of the body.
(k) "Heart attack" means a condition that occurs when part of the heart is starved for oxygen, which stuns the heart and interrupts its rhythm and ability to pump oxygenated blood throughout the body. When the heart stops working, there is no heartbeat (pulse).
(l) "Medical emergency crash cart" means a set of trays, drawers or shelves on wheels that is used in hospitals and other health care facilities for the transportation and dispensing of emergency medication and equipment at the site of a medical emergency for life support protocols to potentially save someone's life. The contents of a crash cart may vary from facility to facility, but typically contain the tools and drugs needed to treat a person in or near cardiac arrest.
(m) "Motor vehicle accident" means any incident involving motor vehicles and/or human beings, which accidents frequently result in harm to human beings, including disability and loss of life.
(n) "Poisoning" means human harm resulting from internal ingestion, breathing, or contact with a substance with an inherent property that tends to destroy life or impair health.
(o) "Shock" means the collapse of circulatory function, caused by severe injury, blood loss, or disease, and is characterized by sweating, low blood pressure, weak pulse, and pallor.
(p) "Stroke" means a brain hemorrhage or blockage of a blood vessel leading to the brain, resulting in insufficient oxygen flow and causing resulting effects such as speech difficulties, paralysis, and death.
(q) "Unresponsive" means a condition when a person has not been able to be roused after attempts by voice or gentle shaking.
SECTION 4. (1) All Mississippi public high schools shall be required, as a condition of accreditation of the schools, to have fully equipped and operational medical emergency crash carts on each floor and each wing of the school in designated, specific areas that are easily accessible by all persons. In addition, all state institutions of higher learning and all state buildings shall be required to have fully operational and stocked medical emergency crash carts in designated, specific areas that are easily accessible by all persons.
(2) All medical emergency crash carts as required under subsection (1) of this section shall contain the most up-to-date medical equipment concerning the full scope of CPR and First Aid potential emergencies, including, but not limited to, the following items, as specified by Red Cross recommendations and standards: basic airway equipment, including bag valve masks, oral and nasal airways, oxygen masks and nasal cannulas, Magill forceps; intravenous or intraosseous access equipment, including angiocaths, intravenous (IV) tubing and IV fluid (if intraosseous access is to used for emergency medications, then a drill and sanitary needles must be included); medications used in the treatment of cardiac arrest, including epinephrine and amiodarone; medications used to treat cardiac dysrhythmias, including adenosine, diltiazem, a beta blocker, and atropine; monitor equipment with a defibrillator or AED; medications to treat allergic reactions such as epinephrine autoinjectors, methylprednisolone and diphenhydramine, aspirin 81 mg PO, nitroglygerine spray or 0.4 mg tablets; additional intubation equipment; alternative airway devices; naloxone; additional antiarrhythmics; additional First Aid equipment, including elastic support and compression bandages, splints, full, sealed water bottles, extra new, sufficient and appropriate voltage batteries for all equipment requiring batteries, blankets, a working cell phone with extra batteries and charger, a flashlight with extra batteries, and a transistor or other battery-operated emergency radio.
(3) All Mississippi public high schools, state institutions of higher learning and state buildings shall be required to comply with provisions for regularly scheduled inspections concerning the provision of fully equipped and operational and sufficient numbers of medical emergency crash carts as required by subsection (1) of this section.
SECTION 5. The State Board of Education, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and the Department of Finance and Administration shall jointly develop a webpage containing information about the proper use of the medical equipment contained on the medical emergency crash carts required to be in the public schools, state institutions of higher learning and state buildings, and shall have a link available to that webpage on the official State of Mississippi website (www.ms.gov) and on the individual websites of the State Board of Education, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and the Department of Finance and Administration.
SECTION 6. Section 37-17-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-17-1. (1) The power and
authority to prescribe standards for the accreditation of noncharter public
schools, to insure compliance with such standards and to establish procedures
for the accreditation of noncharter public schools is * * * vested in the State Board of Education.
The board shall, by orders placed upon its minutes, adopt all necessary rules
and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this chapter and shall provide,
through the State Department of Education, for the necessary personnel for the
enforcement of standards so established. The board shall monitor and ensure
compliance with the provisions of Section 4 of this act, which shall be a
condition of accreditation of noncharter public schools.
(2) A charter school authorized by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board must be granted accreditation by the State Board of Education based solely on the approval of the school by the authorizer. If the authorizer, at any time, revokes a school's charter, the State Board of Education shall withdraw the accreditation of the charter school immediately.
SECTION 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after March 26, 2017.
