BILL REQ. #:  H-2352.1 

READ FIRST TIME 03/02/09.   

     AN ACT Relating to prior notice of hospital surveys and audits; and amending RCW 70.41.120 and 70.41.122.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 70.41.120 and 2005 c 447 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall make or cause to be made an unannounced inspection of all hospitals on average at least every eighteen months. Every inspection of a hospital may include an inspection of every part of the premises. The department may make an examination of all phases of the hospital operation necessary to determine compliance with the law and the standards, rules and regulations adopted thereunder.
     (2) The department shall not issue its final report regarding an unannounced inspection by the department until: (a) The hospital is given at least two weeks following the inspection to provide any information or documentation requested by the department during the unannounced inspection that was not available at the time of the request; and (b) at least one person from the department conducting the inspection meets personally with the chief administrator or executive officer of the hospital following the inspection or the chief administrator or executive officer declines such a meeting.
     (3) Any licensee or applicant desiring to make alterations or additions to its facilities or to construct new facilities shall, before commencing such alteration, addition or new construction, comply with the regulations prescribed by the department.
     (4) No hospital licensed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be required to be inspected or licensed under other state laws or rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, or local ordinances, relative to hotels, restaurants, lodging houses, boarding houses, places of refreshment, nursing homes, maternity homes, or psychiatric hospitals.
     (5) To avoid unnecessary duplication in inspections, the department shall coordinate with the department of social and health services, the office of the state fire marshal, and local agencies when inspecting facilities over which each agency has jurisdiction, the facilities including but not necessarily being limited to hospitals with both acute care and skilled nursing or psychiatric nursing functions. The department shall notify the office of the state fire marshal and the relevant local agency at least four weeks prior to any inspection conducted under this section and invite their attendance at the inspection, and shall provide a copy of its inspection report to each agency upon completion.

Sec. 2   RCW 70.41.122 and 2005 c 447 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     Surveys conducted on hospitals by the joint commission on the accreditation of health care organizations ((or)), the American osteopathic association ((on hospitals accredited by those bodies)), or Det Norske Veritas shall be deemed equivalent to a department survey for purposes of meeting the requirements for the survey specified in RCW 70.41.120 if the department determines that the applicable survey standards ((of the joint commission on the accreditation of health care organizations or the American osteopathic association)) are substantially equivalent to its own.
     (1) Hospitals so surveyed shall provide to the department within thirty days of learning the result of a survey documentary evidence that the hospital has been certified as a result of a survey and the date of the survey.
     (2) Hospitals shall make available to department surveyors the written reports of such surveys during department surveys, upon request.