Sponsored by:
Senator ROBERT W. SINGER
District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Senator RONALD L. RICE
District 28 (Essex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Gopal
SYNOPSIS
Requires DOH to create best practices manual for maternity care; appropriates $950,000.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning maternity care, supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Department of Health, in consultation with interested stakeholders, shall develop a best practices manual for prenatal and postpartum maternal care, which shall be designed to improve medical treatment for maternity patients. Each hospital and ambulatory care facility that provides care to maternity patients shall be required to adopt, and ensure compliance with, the best practices manual as a condition of licensure. The best practices manual shall include, but shall not be limited to, requirements concerning: simulation drills, obstetric response teams, screenings, treatment guidelines, the review and update of facility policies to facilitate implementation of these best practices, and the reporting of adverse events. The department shall establish a system to revise and update the best practices manual as may be appropriate.
b. The Department of Health shall apply for and accept any grant of money from the State or federal government or other sources, which may be available to carry out the purposes of subsection a. of this section.
2. There shall be appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health $950,000 for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2019 to carry out the purposes of subsection a. of section 1 of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Department of Health (DOH) to create a best practices manual for maternity care.
Under the bill, the DOH, in consultation with interested stakeholders, is to develop a best practices manual for prenatal and postpartum maternal care, which is to be designed to improve medical treatment for maternity patients. Each hospital and ambulatory care facility that provides care to maternity patients is to be required to adopt and ensure compliance with the best practices manual as a condition of licensure. The best practices manual is to include, but is not to be limited to, requirements concerning: simulation drills; obstetric response teams; screenings; treatment guidelines; the review and update of facility policies to facilitate implementation of these best practices; and the reporting of adverse events. The DOH is to establish a system to revise and update the best practices manual as may be appropriate.
The bill provides that the DOH is to apply for and accept any grant of money from the State or federal government or other sources, which may be available to carry out the purposes of the bill. Further, the bill provides for a $950,000 appropriation from New Jersey's General Fund to carry out the purposes of this bill.