California Health and Safety Code § 1256.05

(a) For purposes of this section and Section 1256.06, the following definitions apply: (1) “Critical access hospital” means a hospital designated by the State Department of Public Health as a critical access hospital, and certified as such by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the federal Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program. (2) “Department” means the State Department of Public Health, unless otherwise specified. (3) “Standardized order sets” means predefined groups of orders that support clinical decisions, including, but not limited to, appropriate treatments, medications, and dosages, for specific conditions or procedures and that are developed using relevant evidence-based guidelines. (4) “Standby perinatal services” means the provision of obstetric and neonatal medical care to patients who are transferred from an alternative birth center, or who present to the hospital’s emergency department with an urgent or emergent obstetric issue, in a specifically designated area of the hospital that is equipped and maintained at all times to receive patients and capable of providing physician, midwifery, and nursing services within a reasonable time not to exceed 30 minutes. (b) The department shall do all of the following: (1) By July 1, 2026, establish a 10-year pilot project within up to five critical access hospitals to allow participating hospitals to establish standby perinatal services. If qualified, the first two hospitals selected shall be nonprofit and located in the County of Humboldt and the County of Plumas. Up to three additional critical access hospitals may be selected at any time if the application includes a signed agreement from the exclusive employee representatives of the workforce that the proposed pilot project site would not adversely impact the workforce or includes an attestation that there is no existing exclusive employee representative. (2) Within a reasonable time, determine whether hospitals requesting to participate meet applicable statutory requirements, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (A) Ability to meet the standards of the standby perinatal service, as described in Section 1256.06. (B) Provide surgery and anesthesia as basic services of the hospital. (C) Maintain capability for obtaining or performing timely blood gas, pH, and microbiologic analyses. (D) Provide ability to maintain premixed infusions. (E) Maintain a basic emergency medical service, comprehensive emergency medical service, or standby emergency medical service licensed as a supplemental service. (F) (i) Have a designated room or rooms for the standby perinatal service space. A hospital may designate an existing room or rooms with a licensed general acute care bed as the standby perinatal service space. If a hospital designates an existing room or rooms for the standby perinatal service space, the hospital may continue to provide general acute care services in that room or rooms when the room or rooms are not in use by the standby perinatal services only if all remaining general acute care beds are occupied or a plan for management of perinatal patients using alternate space is approved by the department. (ii) The operating room may serve as the delivery room in hospitals having a licensed bed capacity of 25 or less, but the operating room shall not serve as the sole standby perinatal service space. (G) In consultation with stakeholders, establish any additional requirements that the department deems necessary to protect patient safety or to ensure quality of care under the pilot project. (3) (A) Develop a template to collect and evaluate data on safety, outcomes, utilization, and populations served under the pilot project using stratified demographic data, to the extent statistically reliable data are available and comply with medical privacy laws and practices. The department may, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, establish additi

‹ Prev All California sections Next ›

Lexace provides legal information, not legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is created. Statute text is provided for general information and may not reflect the most recent amendments; verify against the official state code.