Relating to hospital practices including those involving sepsis protocols and the rights of a parent of a minor patient

This bill relates to protocols required of hospitals relating to sepsis and minor patients. The bill provides that the short title of the bill is “Adam’s Law”. The bill requires hospitals to adopt, implement, periodically update, and submit to the department of inspections and appeals (DIA) for review and approval, evidence-based protocols for the early recognition and treatment of patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock, which protocols are based on generally accepted standards of care. The protocols shall include components, specified in the bill, that are specific to the identification, care, and treatment of adults and of children, and shall clearly identify the differences in the components applicable to adults and children. The bill requires hospitals to ensure that professional staff with direct patient care responsibilities and, as appropriate, staff with indirect patient care responsibilities are periodically trained to implement the sepsis protocols and to update the training following substantive changes to the protocols. The bill requires hospitals to submit the required sepsis protocols to DIA at the request of the department not more frequently than every two years, following initial approval, unless DIA requires submission more frequently based on hospital-specific performance concerns identified by DIA. The bill requires hospitals to collect, use, and report quality measurement data related to the recognition and treatment of severe sepsis for purposes of internal quality improvement and data reporting to DIA. The data submitted to DIA are for the purposes of development by DIA of risk-adjusted sepsis mortality rates in consultation with appropriate national, hospital, and expert stakeholders. Hospitals are required to submit the data to DIA as specified by DIA, annually, or more frequently at the request of the department. The data are subject to audit at the discretion of DIA. The bill requires hospitals to submit initial sepsis protocols to DIA for review and approval by October 1, 2022, and requires hospitals to implement the protocols within days of receipt of approval of the protocols from DIA. The bill also requires hospitals to provide parents of minor patients with a written copy of information specified in the bill as the “parent’s bill of rights for a minor patient”. The information provided is to advise that, subject to laws and regulations governing privacy and confidentiality, in connection with every hospital admission or emergency room visit of a minor patient, a hospital must comply with certain requirements. The requirements include that the hospital must ask each minor patient or the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate, for the name of the minor patient’s primary care provider, if known, and shall document such information in the minor patient’s medical record; the hospital shall admit minor patients only to the extent consistent with the hospital’s ability to meet the unique needs of minor patients; to the extent possible given a minor patient’s health and safety, the hospital shall allow at least one parent to remain with the minor patient at all times; the results of all tests completed during a minor patient’s admission or visit shall be reviewed by a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner who is familiar with the minor patient’s presenting condition; a minor patient shall not be discharged until the results of any tests that could reasonably be expected to yield critical value results are reviewed by a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner and are communicated to the minor patient and the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate; a minor patient shall not be discharged until the minor patient’s discharge plan is provided in writing and verbally communicated to the minor patient and the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate; the communication of critical value results and the discussion of the discharge plan shall be accomplished in a manner that reasonably assures that a minor patient and the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate, understand the health information provided in order to make appropriate health decisions; a hospital shall provide all laboratory results to a minor patient’s primary care provider, if known; a minor patient and the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate, may request information about the diagnosis, possible diagnoses that were considered during the episode of care, and complications that could develop, as well as information about any contact made with a minor patient’s primary care provider; and upon discharge, a hospital shall provide a minor patient and the minor patient’s parent, as appropriate, with a telephone number that the minor patient and the minor patient’s parent may call for advice if complications or questions arise.1 and “parent” as a parent, guardian, or other person with legal authority to make health care decisions on behalf of a minor patient.