Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman NANCY F. MUNOZ
District 21 (Essex, Morris, Somerset and Union)
SYNOPSIS
Requires hospitals to maintain passive audio or visual mechanism for alerting emergency department staff to presence of non-ambulance vehicles containing patients.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning hospital emergency departments 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 general hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall maintain a continuous passive audio or visual mechanism for alerting emergency department staff, at any time of the day, to the presence of a non-ambulance vehicle in the ambulance bay or emergency parking lot that contains a person seeking emergency medical care.
2. The Commissioner of Health and Senior Services, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect on the 180th day after enactment, but the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.
STATEMENT
This bill requires each licensed general hospital in the State to maintain a continuous passive audio or visual mechanism for alerting its emergency department staff, at any time of the day, to the presence of a non-ambulance vehicle in the ambulance bay or emergency parking lot that contains a person seeking emergency medical care.
The bill takes effect on the 180th day after enactment, but authorizes the Commissioner of Health and Senior Services to take anticipatory administrative action in advance as necessary for its implementation.
The purpose of this bill is to ensure that a patient in need of emergency care who arrives at the hospital in a vehicle other than an ambulance (whether or not the arrival is during normal business hours) and who (due to an emergency medical condition) is unable to exit the vehicle and enter the emergency department without assistance, can gain entry to the emergency department in a timely manner appropriate to the person's condition and need for care.