FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 2828

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Background:

Under Department of Health (DOH) hospital licensing standards, hospitals must maintain infection control programs to reduce the occurrence of hospital-acquired infections. As part of this program, hospitals must adopt policies and procedures consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines regarding infection control in hospitals.

Hospitals must also collect and report data on certain health care-associated infections. This requirement was phased in as follows:

on July 1, 2008, reporting began on central line-associated bloodstream infections in the intensive care unit;
on January 1, 2009, reporting began on ventilator-associated pneumonia; and
on January 1, 2010, reporting began on surgical site infections related to cardiac surgery, total hip and knee replacement, and hysterectomy.

The data on these infections must be collected according to the definitions and methods of the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). The data must be routinely submitted to the NHSN in accordance with its requirements. Hospitals must release to the DOH, or grant the DOH access to, their hospital-specific information as requested.

Annually on December 1, the DOH publishes on its website a health care-associated infection report that compares infection rates at individual hospitals. The Washington State Hospital Association also publishes various hospital quality measures on its website.

Summary:

The requirement is modified for hospitals to report health-care associated infections for specified surgical sites. For three years or until the National Healthcare Safety Network releases a revised module successfully interfacing with a majority of the reporting hospitals' computer systems, whichever occurs first, the hospitals must report the surgical site infection data to the Washington State Hospital Association's Quality Benchmarking System (QBS). The data must include the number of infections and the total number of surgeries performed for each type of surgery.

The data reported to the QBS are not to be included in the DOH's annual health care-associated infection report. The Washington State Hospital Association must use the QBS data as the basis for an annual report published on its website, beginning December 1, 2010, comparing surgical site infection rates at individual hospitals.

Votes on Final Passage:

House	95	0
Senate	47	0