BILL REQ. #:  H-0777.1 

Read first time 01/26/11.   Referred to Committee on Health Care & Wellness.

     AN ACT Relating to clarifying which surgical facilities the Washington state department of health is mandated to license pursuant to chapter 70.230 RCW; and amending RCW 70.230.010 and 70.230.040.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 70.230.010 and 2007 c 273 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Ambulatory surgical facility" means any distinct entity that operates for the primary purpose of providing specialty or multispecialty outpatient surgical services in which patients are admitted to and discharged from the facility within twenty-four hours and do not require inpatient hospitalization, whether or not the facility is certified under Title XVIII of the federal social security act. An ambulatory surgical facility includes one or more surgical suites that are adjacent to and within the same building as, but not in, the office of a practitioner in an individual or group practice, if the primary purpose of the one or more surgical suites is to provide specialty or multispecialty outpatient surgical services, irrespective of the type of anesthesia administered in the one or more surgical suites. An ambulatory surgical facility that is adjacent to and within the same building as the office of a practitioner in an individual or group practice may include a surgical suite that shares a reception area, restroom, waiting room, or wall with the office of the practitioner in an individual or group practice.
     (2) "Department" means the department of health.
     (3) "General anesthesia" means a state of unconsciousness intentionally produced by anesthetic agents, with absence of pain sensation over the entire body, in which the patient is without protective reflexes and is unable to maintain an airway.
     (4) "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, and the legal successor thereof.
     (5) "Practitioner" means any physician or surgeon licensed under chapter 18.71 RCW, an osteopathic physician or surgeon licensed under chapter 18.57 RCW, or a podiatric physician or surgeon licensed under chapter 18.22 RCW.
     (6) "Secretary" means the secretary of health.
     (7) "Surgical services" means invasive medical procedures that:
     (a) Utilize a knife, laser, cautery, cryogenics, or chemicals; and
     (b) Remove, correct, or facilitate the diagnosis or cure of a disease, process, or injury through that branch of medicine that treats diseases, injuries, and deformities by manual or operative methods by a practitioner.

Sec. 2   RCW 70.230.040 and 2007 c 273 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     Nothing in this chapter:
     (1) Applies to an ambulatory surgical facility that is maintained and operated by a hospital licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW;
     (2) Applies to an office maintained for the practice of dentistry;
     (3) Applies to outpatient specialty or multispecialty surgical services routinely and customarily performed in the office of a practitioner in an individual or group practice ((that do not require general anesthesia)), where the primary purpose of the office is not as set forth in RCW 70.230.010(1), provided that any surgical services in which general anesthesia is a planned event must be performed only in an ambulatory surgical facility as defined in this chapter or in a hospital or hospital-associated surgical center licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW; or
     (4) Limits an ambulatory surgical facility to performing only surgical services.