SB 181 — AN ACT CONCERNING EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT CROWDING.

Substitute Senate GeneralBill Assembly File No.

19181 FebruaryPublic Session,Act 2024 Substitute Senate Bill No.

18124-4 Senate,AN MarchACT 13,CONCERNING 2024EMERGENCY TheDEPARTMENT CommitteeCROWDING. on Public Health reported through SEN.

ANWAR of the 3rd Dist., Chairperson of the Committee on the part of the Senate, that the substitute bill ought to pass.

AN ACT CONCERNING EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT CROWDING.

(NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) Not later than January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter,thereafter the Commissioner of Public Health, in collaboration with the chairpersons of the working group established pursuant to section 27 of public act 23-97, until January 1, 2025,2029, and a representative of an association of hospitals in the state, shall (1) evaluate data concerning each hospital emergency department in the state fromwith thean previousemergency year,department including,shall, butand noteach limitedhospital to,operated (A)exclusively bedby capacity, (B) the numberstate ofmay, patientsdirectly whoor received treatment in theconsultation emergencywith department,a (C)hospital theassociation numberin of emergency department patients who were admitted to the hospital,state, (D)analyze for emergency department patients admitted to the hospital,following thedata average length of time from the patient'sprevious firstcalendar presentationyear toconcerning theits emergency departmentdepartment: until the patient's admission to the hospital, and (E) the number of patients whowererequiredtowaitintheemergencydepartmentforanavailable bed in the appropriate unit of the hospital after being admitted to the sSB181 / File No.

19(1) 1The sSB181number Fileof No.patients who received treatment in the emergency department;

19(2) hospital and the lengthnumber of time each such patient waited in the emergency department forpatients suchwho availablewere bed,admitted andto (2) post such datafor each hospital emergency department on the Departmenthospital; of Public Health's Internet web site.

This(3) actfor shallpatients takeadmitted effectto asthe followshospital andafter shallpresenting amendto the followingemergency sections:department, the average length of time from the patient's first presentation to the emergency department until the patient's admission to the hospital;

Sectionand 1(4) fromthe passagepercentage Newof sectionpatients PHwho Jointwere Favorableadmitted Subst.to the hospital after presenting to the emergency department but were transferred to an available bed located in a physical location other than the emergency department more than four hours after an admitting order for the patient was completed.

sSB181Each /such Filehospital shall utilize such analysis with the goals of (A) developing policies or procedures to reduce wait times for admission to the hospital after a patient presents to the emergency department, (B) informing potential Substitute Senate Bill No.

19181 2methods sSB181to Fileimprove No.admission efficiencies, and (C) examining root causes for delays in admission times.

19(b) TheNot followinglater Fiscalthan ImpactMarch Statement1, 2025, and Billannually Analysisthereafter areuntil preparedMarch for1, 2029, each hospital that conducts an analysis pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall submit a report, in accordance with the benefitprovisions of section 11-4a of the membersgeneral statutes, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly,Assembly solelyhaving forcognizance purposes of information,matters summarizationrelating andto explanationpublic health, regarding its findings and doany notrecommendations representfor achieving the intentgoals ofdescribed thein Generalsubparagraphs Assembly(A) orto either(C), chamberinclusive, thereofof forsubdivision any(4) purpose.of subsection (a) of this section.

InApproved general,May fiscal9, impacts2024 arePublic basedAct uponNo. a variety of informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge.

Whenever24-4 applicable,2 agency data is consulted as part of the2 analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any specific department.

OFA Fiscal Note State Impact:

Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 25 $ FY 26 $ Public Health, Dept.

GF - Cost 320,992 299,172 State Comptroller - Fringe Benefits1 GF - Cost 123,408 123,408 TOTAL GF - Cost 444,400 422,580 Note:

GF=General Fund Municipal Impact:

None Explanation The bill, which requires the Department of Public Health (DPH), in collaboration with the chairpersons of the Emergency Department (ED) Crowding Work Group and a representative of an association of hospitalsinthestate, toannually evaluate varioushospitalEDdata and 2 post certain hospital ED data on DPH's website, is anticipated to result in a cost to DPH of $320,992 in FY 25 and $299,172 in FY 26, as well as an annual cost to the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) – Fringe Benefits of $123,408.

This estimate includes staff in FY 25 and FY 26 as 3 well as some one-time other expenses in FY 25.

The Out Years The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would continue into the future subject to inflation.

1The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts administered by the Comptroller.

The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost associated with most personnel changes is 41.25% of payroll in FY 25.

2There are 32 EDs in Connecticut.

3Salary costs include:

1.0 IT Analyst II - $129,935;

1.0 Health Care Analyst - $81,460;

0.5 Research Analyst Supervisor - $53,923;

and 0.25 Nurse Consultant - $33,854.

Other expenses include syndromic surveillance software, hardware, software, and office supplies totaling approximately $22,000.

sSB181 / File No.

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19 OLR Bill Analysis sSB 181 AN ACT CONCERNING EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT CROWDING.

SUMMARY This bill requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) commissioner, starting by January 1, 2025, to annually evaluate data about each in-state emergency department (ED) and post the data on DPH’s website.

The commissioner must conduct the evaluations in collaboration with a representative of an in-state hospital association and, until January 1, 2025, the Emergency Department Crowding Working Group chairpersons (see BACKGROUND).

For each emergency department, the data must include, for the prior year, the bed capacity and the number of patients:

1.

treated in the department;

2.