Health facilities: operations.

(1) Existing law provides for the licensure, registration, and regulation of clinical laboratories and various clinical laboratory personnel by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law makes a person who violates those requirements guilty of a misdemeanor. Existing law requires a clinical laboratory license and the license or renewal permit of each person performing tests therefor to be posted in the clinical laboratory. This bill would instead require the license or renewal permit of each person to be posted only if the person performs tests in the clinical laboratory, and would allow a license of the clinical laboratory and each of those licensed test performers to be stored in a file, or electronically maintained. The bill would require the licenses to be produced to the department upon request. Because a violation of the requirement to produce a license to the department would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of various health facilities, including general acute care hospitals. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital to annually post on its internet website its updated policy concerning the availability of language assistance services to the public, and to annually provide that updated policy and a related description to the department. Existing law requires the department to make those updated policies available on its internet website. This bill would repeal the requirements that a hospital provide those updated policies to the department and that the department post those policies on its internet website. (3) Existing law establishes the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) in the California Health and Human Services Agency to regulate health planning and research development, and designates OSHPD as the single state agency to collect health facility or clinical data. Existing law generally requires a health care facility to report specified data, including patient demographics, to OSHPD. Existing regulations require a general acute care hospital to submit to the State Department of Public Health various data, including demographic and medical data. This bill would provide that a general acute care hospital that submits specified data to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development is compliant with those regulatory reporting requirements. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.