Health facilities: cardiac catheterization laboratory services.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, administered by the State Department of Public Health. A violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. Existing law authorizes the department to approve, as prescribed, a general acute care hospital to offer specified special services, including, but not limited to, cardiac catheterization laboratory services, in addition to the basic services offered under the facility's license. Existing law authorizes the expansion of a cardiac catheterization laboratory service if specified requirements are met, including that the department, at a minimum, adopt standards and regulations that specify that only diagnostic services, and what diagnostic services, may be offered by a general acute care hospital or a multispecialty clinic. This bill would remove the requirement that the department adopt standards and regulations that specify that only diagnostic services may be offered and instead require the department to adopt standards and regulations that specify the type of servicing, including diagnostic servicing, that may be offered by a general acute care hospital or a multispecialty clinic. Existing law creates the Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Program in the State Department of Public Health to certify general acute care hospitals that are licensed to provide urgent and emergent cardiac catheterization laboratory service in California, and that meet prescribed, additional criteria, to perform scheduled, elective PCI. This bill would remove the specification that the described certified general acute care hospitals are licensed to provide urgent and emergent cardiac catheterization laboratory service, and instead license general acute care hospitals that do not offer cardiac surgery services but are licensed to provide cardiac catheterization service. Because this bill would expand the definition of a crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.