No. SB 396
Filed under Healthcare.
Cardiac Services Providers; Revising requirements for licensure of Level I and Level II adult cardiovascular programs; requiring the Agency for Health Care Administration to update specified rules as new applicable industry standards and guidelines are published, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDHospitals seeking Level I cardiac intervention licensure no longer have to prove a minimum patient volume -- 300 catheterizations or 300 ischemic-heart-disease discharges a year. A written transfer agreement with a Level II hospital becomes the main requirement left in its place.
A detailed rule requiring cardiac lab staff to have experience at labs meeting minimum procedure-volume, success-rate, and complication-rate benchmarks is deleted outright, with no replacement standard put in its place.
Level I and Level II hospitals must now also follow guidelines from the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and programs offering electrophysiology services must follow the Heart Rhythm Society's guidelines too.
The agency's rules for these programs, previously updated only if it chose to, must now be kept current as new industry standards and guidelines are published.
AIA hospital seeking licensure as a Level I cardiac intervention program no longer has to demonstrate a minimum of 300 diagnostic catheterizations, or 300 discharges or transfers for ischemic heart disease, in the prior 12 months.
AIThe requirement that cardiac lab nursing and technical staff show experience at a facility meeting specific procedure-volume, success-rate, and complication-rate benchmarks is struck entirely, leaving no numeric standard for that experience in its place.
AILevel I and Level II programs must now also comply with the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions' guidelines, and programs offering electrophysiology services must also comply with the Heart Rhythm Society's guidelines.
AIInstead of only having discretion to adopt rules administering these licensure requirements, the agency now has an ongoing duty to update those rules whenever new industry standards and guidelines are published.
AIInstead of directing the agency's rules to allow for the two-tier licensure system, the statute now directly requires the agency to grant licensure for Level I and Level II programs that meet the listed conditions.