Authorizes the department of health take certain actions for the purpose of supporting home care and community based sepsis prevention, screening, intervention and education.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3839
SPONSOR: McDonald TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to home care and
community based sepsis prevention, screening, intervention and education
PURPOSE:
To amend the Public Health Law, in relation to promoting sepsis
prevention, screening, intervention, education, and seamless and timely
continuum response through the engagement and support of the home and
community based care system.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill adds a new § 3620-a to the public health law to
include state department of health support for home care sepsis screen-
ing, prevention, intervention, mitigation, cross-sector collaboration
and public education. It enumerates a series of provisions, which the
Department may promote.
Section two of the bill establishes that the commissioner shall report
its findings to the Legislature and Governor within 18 months of the
effective date of this act.
Section three of the bill establishes the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
Sepsis is the body's overwhelming and life-threatening response to an
infection. In sepsis, the very elements of a person's physiology that
are triggered to protect and respond to infection, become the threat of
serious and life-threatening consequences.
Every two minutes someone in the US dies of sepsis and every 20 seconds
someone is hospitalized with sepsis. Sepsis is the number one cause of
death in hospitals, the number one source of hospital readmissions, the
top national cost of hospital care at $27 billion annually, and the
number one NYS Medicaid expense for avoidable hospitalizations for the
overall Medicaid population. One in four patients discharged from hospi-
tals after sepsis is readmitted in 30 days. Sepsis takes the lives of
more children annually than cancer, at 18 children dying each day from
sepsis.
While sepsis has these impacts on and in hospitals, an estimated 80% 90%
of sepsis related infections occur at home and in community settings.
While healthy individuals can develop sepsis in response to infection,
those at high risk are the elderly, those with chronic conditions and
disabilities, the very young (and medically fragile children), individ-
uals prone to recurrent pneumonia, urinary tract infections and other
conditions or potential sources of infection. These high risks describe
the very populations typically referred for home care, and are within
home care's reach of intervention.
Sepsis can be prevented with timely infection control practices by indi-
viduals and caregivers; when it develops, it can be mitigated with early
recognition of symptoms and swift intervention by all partners working
closely and in sync. Recognizing the magnitude of this medical emergen-
cy on individuals, and indeed on the entire health system, the Home Care
Association of New York (HCA) has undertaken efforts over the past four
years to develop and implement a first-of-its-kind, and national-first,
statewide home care screening and intervention tool for sepsis. Part-
nering with HCA has been the state-federal Quality Improvement Organiza-
tion contractor IPRO, state and national sepsis advocacy organizations
(the Rory Staunton Foundation and the national Sepsis Alliance), state
and national sepsis experts, government officials, and representatives
from statewide and regional health care associations across the contin-
uum.
This legislation will further assist both home care and continuum part-
ners in mutual work to address this devastating problem by providing key
support in principal areas of technical need required for the adoption
and implementation of this sepsis innovation. Lastly, this will further
synchronize home care with clinical partners across the continuum of
care (hospitals, physicians, EMS, health plans, and others) in a coordi-
nated response to sepsis.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2018- A.11078/S.8669
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Anticipate savings to the state from the intervention and support
accorded by this bill.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3839
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 31, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. McDONALD, TAYLOR, DICKENS, ARROYO, ENGLEBRIGHT,
RIVERA, D'URSO, GALEF, COOK, SEAWRIGHT, BICHOTTE, CAHILL, ORTIZ,
STERN, LAWRENCE, ASHBY, ABBATE, CROUCH, NIOU, SIMON -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to home care and
community based sepsis prevention, screening, intervention and educa-
tion
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section
2 3620-a to read as follows:
3 § 3620-a. Sepsis. 1. The department may provide support for the
4 following objectives and activities to promote community based sepsis
5 prevention, screening, intervention and education in the state, which
6 may include, within available funds and upon the approval of the state
7 director of the budget, grants or supplementation of reimbursement rates
8 to providers. Such supported objectives and activities may include, but
9 are not limited to, on a voluntary home care agency basis:
10 (a) home care agency integration into electronic health records
11 systems of a standardized sepsis screening and intervention tool for
12 home care that meets adopted industry standards and synchronizes to
13 sepsis criteria utilized in hospitals according to departmental protocol
14 requirements for hospitals;
15 (b) timely and synchronized exchange of health information on behalf
16 of patients meeting or suspected to meet sepsis criteria, with such
17 exchange between home care agencies integrating the standardized sepsis
18 tool, and emergency medical services providers, hospitals, patients'
19 primary care practitioners, and other clinical partners, as applicable;
20 (c) establishment and implementation of sepsis collaboratives under
21 the hospital-home care-physician collaboration program under section
22 twenty-eight hundred five-x of this chapter, the purpose of which shall
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00721-01-9
A. 3839 2
1 be to pilot test the effectiveness of collaboratives in promoting the
2 goals of this section, as well as to pilot the development of clinical
3 pathways and interdisciplinary care plans for effective care transition,
4 post-hospital discharge care, and subsequent sepsis prevention and read-
5 mission avoidance for sepsis survivors;
6 (d) home care agency sepsis education and training of home health
7 aides, personal care aides, and family caregivers;
8 (e) community outreach and public and provider education conducted by
9 home care agencies, and by home care in conjunction with continuum part-
10 ners, including hospitals, physicians, emergency medical services,
11 health plans, nursing homes and others, as well as with state and
12 national sepsis public education organizations, including the Rory
13 Staunton Foundation for Sepsis Prevention and Sepsis Alliance. The
14 purpose of such education shall be to foster directly, and in partner-
15 ship with providers, an effective sepsis response across the continuum
16 of care, as well as increased public awareness and education about
17 sepsis and sepsis prevention.
18 2. The department shall issue guidance to home care and other applica-
19 ble providers on the implementation of this section.
20 § 2. The commissioner of health shall, within eighteen months of the
21 effective date of this act, provide information to the legislature and
22 governor on the activities supported by and outcomes achieved by this
23 act in relation to sepsis awareness, prevention, intervention and miti-
24 gation.
25 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. Effective immediately the
26 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
27 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
28 to be made on or before such date.
