CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1779

Chapter 129, Laws of 2022

67TH LEGISLATURE

2022 REGULAR SESSION

SURGICAL SMOKE—SMOKE EVACUATION SYSTEMS

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2024

SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1779

AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE

ByHouse Labor & Workplace Standards (originally sponsored by Representatives Callan, Bronoske, Sells, Dolan, and Ramos)

AN ACT Relating to requiring policies addressing surgical smoke; adding a new section to chapter 49.17 RCW; creating a new section; and providing effective dates.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 49.17 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A health care employer shall adopt policies that require the use of a smoke evacuation system during any planned surgical procedure that is likely to generate surgical smoke which would otherwise make contact with the eyes or respiratory tract of the occupants of the room.

(2) The health care employer may select any smoke evacuation system that accounts for surgical techniques and procedures vital to patient safety and that takes into account employee safety.

(3) The department shall ensure compliance with this section during any on-site inspection.

(4) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(a) "Energy generating device" means a tool that performs a surgical function using heat, laser, electricity, or other form of energy.

(b) "Health care employer" means a hospital, as defined in RCW 70.41.020, or an ambulatory surgical facility, as defined in RCW 70.230.010.

(c) "Smoke evacuation system" means equipment designed to capture and neutralize surgical smoke at the point of origin, before the smoke makes contact with the eyes or the respiratory tract of occupants in the room. Smoke evacuation systems may be integrated with the energy generating device or separate from the energy generating device.

(d) "Surgical smoke" means the by-product that results from contact with tissue by an energy generating device.

(5) The department may adopt rules as necessary to administer this section.

(1) Hospitals certified as critical access hospitals under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1395i-4;

(2) Hospitals with fewer than 25 acute care beds in operation;

(3) Hospitals certified by the centers for medicare and medicaid services as sole community hospitals; and

(4) Hospitals that qualify as a medicare dependent hospital.

(2) By July 1, 2025, the director of the department of labor and industries must certify to the state treasurer the amount of any unobligated moneys in the surgical smoke evacuation account that were appropriated by the legislature from the general fund during the 2023-2025 fiscal biennium, and the treasurer must transfer those moneys back to the general fund.

(3)(a) Subject to the funds available in the surgical smoke evacuation account and beginning January 2, 2025, a hospital described in (b) of this subsection may apply to the department of labor and industries for reimbursement for the costs incurred by the hospital on or before January 1, 2025, to purchase and install smoke evacuation systems as defined in section 1 of this act. The reimbursement may not exceed $1,000 for each operating room in the hospital. The reimbursements under this subsection are only available until moneys contained in the account are exhausted.

(b) Only the following hospitals may apply for reimbursement:

(i) Hospitals certified as critical access hospitals under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1395i-4;

(ii) Hospitals with fewer than 25 acute care beds in operation;

(iii) Hospitals certified by the centers for medicare and medicaid services as sole community hospitals; and

(iv) Hospitals that qualify as a medicare dependent hospital.

(c) The department of labor and industries must determine the process for making an application for reimbursement.

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