Sponsored by:
Senator KEVIN J. O'TOOLE
District 40 (Bergen, Essex, Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Directs hospitals to establish protocols for dispatch and patient transport by specialty care transportation units used for inter-facility transfers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As reported by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on December 17, 2012, with amendments.
An Act concerning specialty care transportation units and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. A general hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall establish protocols to 1[ensure] request1 immediate dispatch, timely patient pick-up from the sending hospital, and transport to the receiving hospital by a specialty care transportation unit, or SCTU, used for patient inter-facility transfers.
b. A general hospital shall establish contingency SCTU transport protocols in the event that the hospital’s designated SCTU is not immediately available for dispatch.
c. The Department of Health 1[and Senior Services]1 shall ensure, by means of its periodic inspection of a hospital and such other measures as it deems appropriate, that the hospital has established and implemented the protocols required pursuant to subsections a. and b. of this section.
d. A hospital that fails to comply with the provisions of this act shall be liable to a penalty in accordance with the provisions of sections 13 and 14 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-13 and C.26:2H-14).
2. The Commissioner of Health 1[and Senior Services]1 shall adopt, pursuant to the “Administrative Procedure Act,” P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), such rules and regulations as are necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of enactment, but the commissioner may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.