South Carolina General Assembly
116th Session, 2005-2006

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S. 799

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senator Mescher
Document Path: l:\council\bills\nbd\11742ac05.doc
Companion/Similar bill(s): 1318

Introduced in the Senate on April 27, 2005
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Medical Affairs

Summary: Hospital-Acquired Infections Disclosure Act

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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   4/27/2005  Senate  Introduced and read first time SJ-9
   4/27/2005  Senate  Referred to Committee on Medical Affairs SJ-9

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

4/27/2005

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND CHAPTER 7, TITLE 44, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 20 SO AS TO ENACT THE "SOUTH CAROLINA HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS DISCLOSURE ACT", INCLUDING PROVISIONS TO REQUIRE HOSPITALS TO REPORT PROCESS AND OUTCOME MEASURES TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL; TO ESTABLISH REPORTING CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR COLLECTING AND ANALYZING THIS DATA, TO ESTABLISH AN ADVISORY COUNCIL; TO REQUIRE PUBLICATION OF AN ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARIZING THE DATA COLLECTED; TO PROVIDE CONFIDENTIALITY OF PATIENT IDENTIFYING INFORMATION; AND TO PROVIDE PENALTIES.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION    1.    Chapter 7, Title 44 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Article 20

South Carolina Hospital-Acquired Infections Disclosure Act

Section 44-7-2410.    This article may be cited as the 'South Carolina Hospital-Acquired Infections Disclosure Act'.

Section 44-7-2420.    For purposes of this article:

(1)    'Department' means the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(2)    'Hospital' means a facility organized and administered to provide overnight medical or surgical care or nursing care of illness, injury, or infirmity and may provide obstetrical care, and in which all diagnoses, treatment, or care is administered by or under the direction of persons currently licensed to practice medicine, surgery, or osteopathy.

(3)    'Hospital-acquired infection' means a localized or systemic condition, as defined by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, applied to infections within hospitals.

Section 44-7-2430.    (A)(1)    An individual hospital shall collect data on appropriate process and outcome measures based on facility type and shall phase in measures gradually to allow time for facilities to adapt and to permit ongoing evaluation of data validity.

(2)    Processes may be chosen from the following:

(a)    central-line insertion practices in critical care areas;

(b)    surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis in targeted surgical procedures.

(3)    Outcomes may be chosen from the following:

(a)    central-line related bloodstream infections in critical care areas;

(b)    targeted surgical site infections;

(c)    other categories of hospital-acquired infections, as determined by the department after consultation with the advisory council.

(B)(1)    Hospitals must file quarterly reports regarding hospital-acquired infection rates with the department. Quarterly reports must be filed with the department by April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31 each year. Data contained in a quarterly report must cover a period ending not earlier than one month prior to submission of the report. Quarterly reports must be made available to the public at each hospital and through the department. The first quarterly report must be filed with the department by April 30, 2006.

(2)    If the hospital is a division or subsidiary or another entity that owns or operates other hospitals or related organizations, the report must be for the specific division or subsidiary and not for the other entity.

(C)(1)    The commissioner of the department shall appoint an advisory council composed of:

(a)    two members of the public;

(b)    two board-certified or board-eligible licensed physicians, recommended by the Board of the South Carolina Infectious Disease Society, who are active in health care infection control;

(c)    one physician licensed to practice medicine in this State, recommend by the South Carolina Medical Association, who holds medical privileges in this State and who holds medical staff privileges at a South Carolina Hospital;

(d)    four infection control practitioners, recommended by the Board of the Palmetto Chapter of Association of Professionals in Infection Control;

(e)    a medical statistician with an advanced degree in this specialty;

(f)    two representatives from the South Carolina Hospital Association, recommended by the South Carolina Hospital Association, one of whom must be involved in national hospital performance measures and one of whom must possess administrative expertise;

(g)    a representative from Carolina Medical Review, recommended by the Carolina Medical Review;

(h)    three employees of the department who shall serve as ex officio members.

(2)    The advisory council shall assist the department in the development of all aspects of the department's methodology for collecting, analyzing, and disclosing the information collected under this article, including collection methods, formatting, and methods and means for release and dissemination of this information.

(3)    In developing the methodology for collecting and analyzing these measurers, the department and the advisory council shall utilize existing methodologies and systems for data collection, such as the Centers for Disease Control's National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, or its successor.

(4)    The department and the advisory council shall evaluate on a regular basis the quality and accuracy of hospital information reported under this article, including the data collection, analysis, and dissemination methodologies.

Section 44-7-2440.    (A)    A progress report must be submitted one year after this article's effective date. Thereafter, when the methodology, measures, and other information required in Section 44-7-2430(C)(2) have been established, the department annually shall submit to the General Assembly a report summarizing the hospital data reports and shall publish an annual report on the department's website. The department may issue periodic informational bulletins summarizing all or part of the information submitted in the hospital reports.

(B)    All reports issued by the department must be risk adjusted.

(C)    The annual report shall compare the hospital measures, collected pursuant to Section 44-7-2430, for each individual hospital in the State. The department, in consultation with the advisory council, shall make this comparison as easy to comprehend as possible. The report also must include an executive summary, written in plain language, that must include, but is not limited to, a discussion of findings, conclusions, and trends in the State, including a comparison to prior years when data is available.

(D)    The department shall publicize the report and its availability as widely as practical to interested parties including, but not limited to, hospitals, providers, media organizations, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, purchasers of health insurance, organized labor, consumer or patient advocacy groups, and individual consumers. The annual report must be made available to any person upon request.

(E)    A hospital report or department disclosure must not contain information identifying a patient, employee, or licensed health care professional in connection with a specific infection incident.

Section     44-7-2450.    It is the expressed intent of the General Assembly that a patient's right of confidentiality must not be violated in any manner. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, patient social security numbers and any other information that could be used to identify an individual patient must not be released.

Section 44-7-2460.    If a provider fails to submit the health care data required pursuant to this article or regulations promulgated pursuant to this article, the department may assess a civil penalty of up to five thousand dollars for each violation but the total fine may not exceed ten thousand dollars.

Section 44-7-2470.    Information reported by a hospital under this article and analyses, plans, records, and reports obtained, prepared, or compiled by a hospital under this article and all related information and materials are subject to an absolute privilege and may not be used in any form against the hospital, its agents, employees, partners, assignees, or independent contractors in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding, regardless of the means by which a person came into possession of the information, analysis, plan, record, report, or related information or material."

SECTION    3.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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