SENATE HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND SENIOR CITIZENS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3219

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 7, 2020

      The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3219.

      This bill revises the requirements for the provision of care to trauma patients.

      Specifically, the bill requires each emergency medical services provider in the State, as a condition of licensure, to certify that its standards, practices, and protocols are in accordance with the “Guidelines for Field Triage of Injured Patients, Recommendations of the National Expert Panel on Field Triage, 2011; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MMWR, January 13, 2012, Vol. 61, No. 1,” or successor guidance.  Compliance with this requirement will be verified during the annual provider audit.

      The bill defines “emergency medical services provider” to mean any association, organization, company, department, agency, service, program, unit, or other entity that provides pre-hospital emergency care to patients in New Jersey, including, but not limited to, a basic life support ambulance service, a mobile intensive care program or mobile intensive care unit, an air medical service, or a volunteer or non-volunteer first aid, rescue and ambulance squad.

      Additionally, the bill requires each general acute care hospital in the State to maintain trauma patient transfer criteria and transfer agreements, which criteria and agreements are to provide for the effective and efficient transfer of patients requiring the services of a trauma center.  The Department of Health will be required to collect and post on its Internet website each hospital’s transfer criteria and transfer agreements.