Bill Text: NJ A3274 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires reporting of Clostridium difficile infections in hospitals and nursing homes.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-09-27 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee [A3274 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-A3274-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman RONALD S. DANCER
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
Assemblywoman BETTYLOU DECROCE
District 26 (Essex, Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires reporting of Clostridium difficile infections in hospitals and nursing homes.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the reporting of cases of Clostridium difficile infections in health care facilities and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. Each general and special hospital and nursing home licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et al.) shall be required to report quarterly to the Department of Health, in a form and manner prescribed by the Commissioner of Health in consultation with the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee within the department and subject to any requirements established by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each laboratory-identified case of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection in that facility.
b. The commissioner shall promptly advise a hospital or nursing home in the event that the commissioner determines that, based on information reported by the facility, a change in facility practices or policy is necessary to improve performance in the prevention of C. diff infection at the facility.
c. The commissioner shall make available to members of the public, on the Internet website of the Department of Health, the information reported pursuant to this act, in such a format as the commissioner deems appropriate to enable comparison among hospitals and nursing homes with respect to the information, and shall include all such applicable information in the New Jersey Hospital Performance Report annually issued by the commissioner.
d. The commissioner may, by regulation, expand the reporting requirements in this act to other types of health care facilities as the commissioner determines appropriate.
2. The Commissioner of Health, in consultation with the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee in the Department of Health and pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt such rules and regulations as are necessary to implement the provisions of this act.
3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of enactment, but the Commissioner of Health may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the reporting of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections by hospitals and nursing homes in this State.
C. diff is a serious and potentially fatal bacterial infection that ravages the intestines (causing diarrhea, fever, nausea, and abdominal pain) and preys on hospital patients and nursing home residents. It is linked in hospital records to more than 30,000 annual deaths in the United States and strikes approximately a half-million Americans each year. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will begin requiring general hospitals nationwide to report laboratory-identified C. diff cases in January 2013, but this requirement will not address all of the health care facilities in which persons are at potential risk of contracting this infection.
The bill provides that each licensed general and special hospital and nursing home in New Jersey is to report quarterly to the Department of Health (DOH), in a form and manner prescribed by the Commissioner of Health in consultation with the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee within DOH and subject to any requirements established by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services or the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each laboratory-identified case of C. diff infection in that facility.
The commissioner is to promptly advise a hospital or nursing home in the event that the commissioner determines that, based on information reported by the facility, a change in facility practices or policy is necessary to improve performance in the prevention of C. diff infection at the facility.
The commissioner is to make available to members of the public, on the DOH Internet website, the information reported pursuant to the bill, in such a format as the commissioner deems appropriate to enable comparison among hospitals and nursing homes with respect to the information, and to include all such applicable information in the New Jersey Hospital Performance Report annually issued by the commissioner.
The commissioner may, by regulation, expand the reporting requirements in this bill to other types of health care facilities, as the commissioner determines appropriate.
The commissioner, in consultation with the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee and pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," is to adopt such rules and regulations as are necessary to implement the provisions of the bill.
The bill takes effect on the first day of the fourth month after the date of enactment, but authorizes the Commissioner of Health to take prior administrative action as necessary for its implementation.
