BILL REQ. #:  H-1867.1 

Read first time 02/24/2003.   Referred to Committee on Health Care.

     AN ACT Relating to hospital emergency services; and adding a new section to chapter 70.41 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   A new section is added to chapter 70.41 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) A hospital shall provide emergency services twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week in a designated area of the hospital. A hospital shall meet all the requirements for emergency facilities that are established by the department and shall provide emergency services in a manner that meets the requirements established by federal law for the medical screening and stabilization of patients, including women in active labor, who present to the hospital for emergency services.
     (2) A hospital providing emergency services under this section shall have, at a minimum, the following:
     (a) A physician who is qualified to provide emergency services immediately available in the hospital;
     (b) A roster of on-call medical staff members; and
     (c) Procedures to minimize a patient's risk until the patient is transported or transferred to another hospital if emergency services cannot be provided at the hospital to meet the needs of the patient in an emergency. A specialty hospital providing emergency services under this section shall maintain a transfer agreement with a general hospital that establishes the process for patient transfers in a situation in which the specialty hospital cannot provide continuing care for a patient because of the specialty hospital's scope of services.
     (3) This section does not apply to:
     (a) A specialty hospital that provides only psychiatric or rehabilitative services;
     (b) A hospital that was licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW prior to January 1, 2003, and either: (i) Did not meet the requirements of this section as of January 1, 2003; or (ii) reported to the department through the regular licensing process that the hospital's scope of services would not include emergency services during the licensing period in effect as of January 1, 2003; or
     (c) A specialty hospital that is operated or controlled by an entity or health care system that operates or controls at least one general hospital within the same county as the specialty hospital if the specialty hospital maintains a written transfer agreement with a general hospital that provides emergency services.
     (4) For the purposes of this section:
     (a) "Emergency services" means health care services medically necessary to evaluate and treat a medical condition that manifests itself by the acute onset of a symptom or symptoms, including severe pain, that would lead a prudent layperson acting reasonably to believe that a health condition exists that requires immediate medical attention, and that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in serious impairment to bodily functions or serious dysfunction of a bodily organ or part, or would place the person's health (or in the case of a pregnant woman, the health of the woman or her unborn child) in serious jeopardy;
     (b) "General hospital" means a hospital that provides general acute care services, including emergency services;
     (c) "Specialty hospital" means a subclass of hospital that either provides hospital services within a specific branch of medicine or limits admission according to age, sex, type of disease, or medical condition;
     (d) "Transfer agreement" means a written agreement providing an effective process for the transfer of a patient requiring emergency services to a general hospital providing emergency services and for continuity of care for that patient.