Employment: health information technology: clinical practice guidelines: worker rights.

Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with enforcement of various labor laws, including investigation of employee complaints. Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties relating to the licensure and regulation of health facilities, as defined. Existing law establishes the Department of Consumer Affairs and establishes various boards within its jurisdiction, including those charged with the licensure and regulation of practice in the various healing arts. This bill would provide that the use of technology shall not limit a worker who is providing direct patient care from exercising independent clinical judgment in the assessment, evaluation, planning, and implementation of care, nor from acting as a patient advocate. The bill would define "technology" for these purposes to mean scientific hardware or software, including algorithms derived from the use of health care related data, used to achieve a medical or nursing care objective at a general acute care hospital. This bill would authorize a worker who provides direct patient care at a general acute care hospital to override health information technology and clinical practice guidelines if, in their professional judgment and in accordance with their scope of practice, which includes receiving the approval of the patient's physician or doctor of podiatric medicine, it is in the best interest of the patient to do so. The bill would require a general acute care hospital to notify all workers who provide direct patient care and, if subject to a collective bargaining agreement, their representatives, before implementing new information technology that materially affects the jobs of the workers or their patients. This bill would prohibit a general acute care hospital employer from retaliating or otherwise discriminating against a worker providing direct patient care who requests to override health information technology and clinical practice guidelines or discusses these issues with other employees or supervisors. The bill would authorize a worker who is subject to retaliation or discrimination by a general acute care hospital employer to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner against the general acute care hospital employer. The bill would limit the Labor Commissioner's jurisdiction with regard to the complaint to retaliation or other discrimination against a worker for requesting to override, or discussing overriding, health information technology. This bill would require a general acute care hospital to ensure that appropriate education or training be provided to workers providing direct patient care for purposes of educating or training those workers on how to utilize the new technology and to understand its limitations. The bill would require a general acute care hospital to allow workers providing direct patient care in the affected clinical areas to provide input in the implementation process for new technology impacting patient care delivery, as provided. The bill would authorize representatives of a general acute care hospital's professional practice committee to recommend certain improvements and participate, when feasible, in the implementation processes, as specified. The bill would specify that its provisions do not allow the override of any physician orders. Existing law, the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA) , authorizes an aggrieved employee to bring a civil action to recover specified civil penalties that would otherwise be assessed and collected by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency on behalf of the employee and other current or former employees for the violation of certain provisions affecting employees. This bill would exempt violations of the above provisions from PAGA, unless otherwise agreed to by an employer and a labor organization in a collective bargaining agreement.