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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 1538
January Session, 2025
AN ACT CONCERNING EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT BOARDING
AND CROWDING.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective from passage) The Probate Court Administrator 1
and the Commissioner of Social Services shall evaluate the feasibility of 2
establishing an expedited process for the appointment of a conservator 3
for patients of hospital emergency departments who lack the capacity to 4
consent to receive health care services from the hospital to ensure such 5
patients receive such services in a timely fashion and help alleviate 6
emergency department boarding and crowding. Not later than January 7
1, 2026, said administrator and commissioner shall jointly report, in 8
accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a of the general statutes, 9
to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having 10
cognizance of matters relating to public health regarding such 11
evaluation and any recommendations for legislation necessary to 12
establish an expedited conservator process for emergency department 13
patients. As used in this section, "emergency department boarding" 14
means holding patients who have been admitted to the hospital after 15
presenting to the emergency department in the emergency department 16
while awaiting an inpatient bed. 17
Sec. 2. Section 19a-490ii of the general statutes is repealed and the 18
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective from passage): 19 Substitute Bill No. 1538
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(a) Not later than January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter until 20
January 1, 2029, each hospital in the state with an emergency 21
department shall, and each hospital operated exclusively by the state 22
may, directly or in consultation with a hospital association in the state, 23
analyze the following data from the previous calendar year concerning 24
its emergency department: (1) The number of patients who received 25
treatment in the emergency department; (2) the number of emergency 26
department patients who were admitted to the hospital; (3) for patients 27
admitted to the hospital after presenting to the emergency department, 28
the average length of time from the patient's first presentation to the 29
emergency department until the patient's admission to the hospital; and 30
(4) the percentage of patients who were admitted to the hospital after 31
presenting to the emergency department but were transferred to an 32
available bed located in a physical location other than the emergency 33
department more than four hours after an admitting order for the 34
patient was completed. Each such hospital shall utilize such analysis 35
with the goals of (A) developing policies or procedures to reduce wait 36
times for admission to the hospital after a patient presents to the 37
emergency department, (B) informing potential methods to improve 38
admission efficiencies, and (C) examining root causes for delays in 39
admission times. 40
(b) Not later than March 1, 2025, and annually thereafter until March 41
1, 2029, each hospital that conducts an analysis pursuant to subsection 42
(a) of this section shall submit a report, in accordance with the 43
provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committee of the 44
General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to public 45
health and, not later than March 1, 2026, and annually thereafter until 46
March 1, 2029, shall also submit such report to the Commissioners of 47
Public Health and Health Strategy, regarding its findings and any 48
recommendations for achieving the goals described in subparagraphs 49
(A) to (C), inclusive, of subdivision (4) of subsection (a) of this section. 50
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Substitute Bill No. 1538
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Section 1 from passage New section
Sec. 2 from passage 19a-490ii
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Section 2(b), "shall also submit such report" was added for clarity.
PH Joint Favorable Subst.