Pennsylvania lawmakers on Saturday approved legislation to require hospitals and nursing homes in the state to promptly report patient infections to state authorities and take steps to reduce such infections, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
A spokesperson for Gov. Ed Rendell (D) said the governor will sign the bill, which was unanimously passed by both the House and Senate during a session held to finalize the state budget.
The measure, part of the governor's "Prescription for Pennsylvania" health care agenda, aims to reduce insurance premiums by cutting the number of infections patients contract through increased monitoring.
The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania said that some mandates in an earlier version of the bill would have been too costly for small hospitals. However, the group's concerns have been eased by a new federal infection-reporting network that will standardize electronic reporting by hospitals and regulatory agencies, the AP/Inquirer reports.
The legislation would require some hospitals to by 2009 install an electronic monitoring system that checks laboratory, pharmacy and radiology reports for signs of infections. About one-third of the state's general hospitals have such systems, according to Paula Bussard, a senior vice president of the hospital association.
Other hospitals would have to produce an internal assessment demonstrating that such a system should not be required because the facility is too small, does not have sufficient resources or does not have infection-prone patients.
Hospitals and nursing homes would be required to report infections within 24 hours to state health authorities, and hospitals also would have to report infections to CDC's National Health Safety Network.
Eight other states already require hospitals to report to the federal system. However, if the bill becomes law, Pennsylvania would become the first state to require nursing homes to report infections to state authorities, Bussard said (Levy, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/14).