Bill > HB156

This bill updates the Delaware Healthcare Associated Infections Disclosure Act to improve consistency in terminology and align with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) requirements. The bill makes numerous technical changes, including updating terms like changing "health-care" to "healthcare" and "psychiatric" to "behavioral health" throughout the law. It modifies the composition of the Advisory Committee, reducing the number of members and adjusting the representation to include more specific roles like an infection preventionist from the Department of Correction healthcare facilities and a representative from population health organizations. The bill maintains the core purpose of collecting and reporting healthcare-associated infection data from various healthcare facilities, ensuring patient privacy, and promoting transparency. Key provisions include requiring hospitals and correctional facilities to collect and report infection data using CDC NHSN definitions, establishing an annual reporting process, creating an Advisory Committee to guide the data collection methodology, and maintaining strict confidentiality protections for patient information. The bill also preserves potential penalties for non-compliance, such as licensure termination or civil penalties up to $500 per day per violation, and requires all hospitals to join the NHSN to facilitate comprehensive infection tracking and reporting.

Health and Social Services

https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142228