Senate Bill No. 581
(By Senators Prezioso, Foster and Kessler)
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[Introduced February 15, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §16-5B-18, relating
to establishing the Primary Stroke Center Hospital Designation
Act; and designating hospitals as primary stroke centers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §16-5B-18, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5B. HOSPITALS AND SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS.
§16-5B-18. The Primary Stroke Center Hospital Designation Act.
(a) Except as otherwise provided, for purposes of this
section:
(1) "Acute care hospital" means a licensed facility providing
inpatient and outpatient medical or surgical services to an
individual that seeks care and treatment, regardless of the individual's ability to pay for services, on an immediate and
emergent basis through an established emergency department and a
continuous treatment basis on its premises for more than twenty-
four hours; and
(2) "Primary stroke center certification" means certification
for acute care hospitals issued by the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) or another
Department of Health and Humans Resources-approved nationally
recognized organization that provides disease specific
certification for stroke care, that:
(A) Complies with census-based national standards and safety
goals;
(B) Effectively uses evidence-based clinical practice
guidelines to manage and optimize care; and
(C) Uses an organized approach to measure performance.
(b) The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Resources shall designate as a primary stroke center any acute care
hospital which has received a primary stroke center certification.
(c) The secretary shall suspend or revoke an acute care
hospital's designation as a primary stroke center if certification
is withdrawn by JCAHO or another approved certifying organization.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to designate hospitals as
primary stroke centers.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.