H. B. 4418
(By Delegates Perdue, Hatfield, Long, Boggs,
Staggers, Varner and Hamilton)
[Introduced February 5, 2008; referred to the Committee
on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §16-5B-17, relating
to healthcare-associated infection reporting, establishing an
advisory panel, establishing their responsibilities,
establishing limitations on use of information, establishing
that all hospitals shall report and establishing that the
Health Care Authority will make the data available to the
public and to Bureau of Public Health and establishing an
internal implementation date.
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-17, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5B. HOSPITALS AND SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS.
§16-5B-17. Healthcare-associated infection reporting.
(a) The Legislature declares that healthcare-associated
infections have been determined to occur in approximately two
million people each year and ninety-nine thousand associated deaths
occur annually leading to costs of twenty billion dollars each year
nationally. Infections can occur as a result of relatively common
procedures such as intravenous tube or catheter use. Drug
resistant infections have become a growing concern both nationally
and within the state. Publicizing infection rates encourages
hospitals to take measures to prevent the spread of infections by
increasing accountability and helping pinpoint effective prevention
guidelines.
(b) As used in this section, the following words have the
following meanings:
(1) "CDC" means The Center for Disease Control and Prevention;
(2) "NHSN" means the National Healthcare Safety Network, a
surveillance system created by the CDC for accumulating exchanging
and integrating relevant information on infectious adverse events
associated with healthcare delivery.
(3) "Hospitals" include facilities licensed under hospital
licensing laws set forth in this article.
(c) An Infection Control Advisory Panel is created in the West
Virginia Health Care Authority to provide guidance and oversight in
implementing this section. The advisory panel shall consist of the
following members:
(1) Two board-certified or board-eligible physicians who are
affiliated with a West Virginia hospital or medical school and are
active members of the Society for Health Care Epidemiology of
America and who have demonstrated an interest in infection control:
(2)One licensed physician who maintains privileges in a West
Virginia hospital;
(3)Three infection control practitioners who are certified by
the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, who
work in the area of infection control, who represent both rural and
urban practice and two of whom are registered professional nurses;
(4) A medical statistician with an advanced degree in the
specialty;
(5) A clinical microbiologist with an advanced degree in the
specialty;
(6) The Director of the Division of Disease Surveillance and
Disease Control in the Bureau for Public Health or a designee; and
(7) The director of the hospital program in the office of
health facilities, licensure and certification in the Bureau for
Public Health.
(d) The advisory panel shall:
(1) Provide guidance to hospitals in their collection of
healthcare-associated infections;
(2) Provide evidence-based practices in the control and
prevention of healthcare-associated infections;
(3) Establish reasonable goals to reduce the number of
healthcare-associated infections;
(4) Develop plans for analyzing infection-related data from
hospitals;
(5) Develop healthcare-associated advisories for hospital
distribution;
(6) Review and recommend to the Health Care Authority the
manner in which the reporting is made available to the public to
assure that the public understands the meaning of the report; and
(7) Others as identified over time.
(e) Hospitals shall report information on
healthcare-associated infections in the manner prescribed by the
CDC National Healthcare Safety Network(NHSN) and this reporting
standard shall be the reporting system of the hospitals in West
Virginia. All hospitals shall report or a penalty of five thousand
dollars shall be imposed per incident.
(f) The National Healthcare Safety Network shall provide the
results of the collection and analysis of all hospital data to the
West Virginia Health Care Authority for public availability and the
Bureau for Public Health for consideration in their hospital
oversight and epidemiology and disease surveillance
responsibilities in West Virginia.
(g) Data collected and reported pursuant to this act may not
be considered to establish standards of care for any purposes of civil litigation in West Virginia nor shall data reported pursuant
to this act by a specific hospital be utilized in any civil
litigation brought in West Virginia against the reporting facility.
(h) The Health Care Authority shall report in January of each
year beginning in the year two thousand eleven a summary of the
results of the required reporting and the work of the advisory
panel.
(i) Hospitals shall initiate this reporting requirement no
later than the first day of July, two thousand nine.
NOTE: The purpose of the bill is to establish a statewide
reporting system for hospitals to report their infection rates and
to improve the incidence of infections in West Virginia hospitals.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.