S147

An Act concerning patient infections in hospitals and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Nosocomial infections, which are infections acquired by a patient in a health care facility that are unrelated to the patient's original condition, remain a significant challenge to health care facilities;

b. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nosocomial infections affect approximately two million patients in acute care facilities in the United States annually at an estimated direct patient care cost of about $3.5 billion;

c. Epidemiological studies have estimated that one-third of nosocomial infections can be prevented by well-organized infection control programs; however, only 6-9% are actually prevented, according to the Institute of Medicine;

d. Acute care hospitals in New Jersey should be required to report information about nosocomial infections to the Department of Health and Senior Services in order to provide the department with data that are essential to developing appropriate measures to enhance the quality of hospital patient care by ensuring the use of appropriate infection-control processes; and

e. This information should also be made available to the general public as a means of providing an additional incentive to hospitals to improve their infection-control efforts, and to enable patients, employers and health insurers to compare hospitals with respect to these data.

2. a. The Commissioner of Health and Senior Services shall prescribe, by regulation, requirements to be adopted by each general hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) with regard to reporting the incidence and type of nosocomial infections in hospital patients to the Department of Health and Senior Services.

For the purpose of this subsection, the commissioner shall direct each hospital to:

(1) maintain written policies and procedures that delineate the responsibilities of hospital staff for compiling and reporting the information that is reported pursuant to this subsection;

(2) maintain a written record of the information that is reported pursuant to this subsection for a specified period of time;

(3) include in its report the rate of nosocomial infection among its patients, based upon the number of its inpatients who develop such infections during the course of their hospital stay as compared with the total number of inpatients in the hospital during the reporting period, and the type and severity of those infections according to criteria set forth by the commissioner;

(4) report this information according to a schedule to be determined by the commissioner, but at least annually; and

(5) transmit the required information on a form and in a manner prescribed by the commissioner, which shall not include identifying information about any patient.

b. The department shall make available to members of the general public, upon request, the information that is reported pursuant to subsection a. of this section, in such a format as the commissioner deems appropriate to facilitate comparison among hospitals with respect to the reported information.

c. The requirements to be adopted pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall take effect no later than the 180th day after the effective date of this act.

3. The Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.

4. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill is designed to ensure that licensed general hospitals in New Jersey report information about nosocomial patient infections to the Department of Health and Senior Services.

Specifically, the bill provides that the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services is to prescribe, by regulation, requirements to be adopted by each general hospital with regard to furnishing the required information.

The commissioner is to direct each hospital to:

-- maintain written policies and procedures that delineate the responsibilities of hospital staff for compiling and reporting the information that is reported pursuant to the bill;

-- maintain a written record of the information that is reported pursuant to the bill for a specified period of time;

-- include in its report the rate of nosocomial infection among its patients, based upon the number of its inpatients who develop such infections during the course of their hospital stay as compared with the total number of inpatients in the hospital during the reporting period and the type and severity of those infections according to criteria set forth by the commissioner;

-- report this information according to a schedule to be determined by the commissioner, but at least annually; and

-- transmit the required information on a form and in a manner prescribed by the commissioner, which is not to include identifying information about any patient.

The bill directs the Department of Health and Senior Services to make available to members of the general public, upon request, the information that is reported pursuant to the bill, in such a format as the commissioner deems appropriate to facilitate comparison among hospitals with respect to the reported information.

The requirements to be adopted pursuant to this bill are to take effect no later than the 180th day after the effective date of the bill.