Health facilities: connection ports.

Existing law establishes various programs for the prevention of disease and the promotion of the public health under the administration of the State Department of Public Health, including, but not limited to, a program for the licensure and regulation of health facilities. Existing law, to become operative January 1, 2011, prohibits certain health facilities from using an intravenous, epidural, or enteral feeding connection that would fit into a connection port other than the type it was intended for, unless an emergency or urgent situation exists and the prohibition impairs the ability to provide health care. This bill would, instead, for epidural connections, make the operative date of this prohibition 36 months after prescribed standards are developed, or January 1, 2014, whichever occurs first, and for intravenous and enteral connections, make the operative date 24 months after prescribed standards are developed, or January 1, 2013, whichever occurs first. The bill would require the Advanced Medical Technology Association to report annually to the Legislature on the progress of the development of those standards. The bill would require measures to prevent adverse effects be included in the health facility patient safety plan, as prescribed.