Bill > A591

Introduced Session

This bill prohibits hospitals in the State from advertising to the public that they provide the services of level-one or level-two pediatric emergency departments unless certain requirements specified in the bill are met. The bill also requires that the Department of Health (DOH) include in its annual New Jersey Hospital Performance Report hospital-specific data pertaining to pediatric emergency care deemed by the department to be most relevant for inclusion in the report. Specifically, the bill requires that a level-one or level-two pediatric emergency departments have a board certified pediatric emergency medicine physician as its director and a certified pediatric emergency nurse responsible for day-to-day managerial responsibility. Neither the director nor the nurse manager would be permitted to hold that position in another facility. A level-one pediatric emergency department would further be required to be staffed on a 24-hour basis by a board certified pediatric emergency physician, a board eligible pediatric emergency physician, a board certified pediatrician with at least three years of experience working in a pediatric emergency department, or a board certified general emergency medicine physician with at least three years of experience working in a pediatric emergency department. The hospital would also be required to maintain a separate pediatric inpatient or pediatric intensive care unit. In addition, the hospital would be required to maintain staff with pediatric subspecialties specified in the bill and to maintain formal consultative relationships with additional specified physician subspecialists, who would be available for consultation within one hour of a request for consultation. Level-two pediatric emergency departments would be required to be in a space designated exclusively for the care of pediatric patients, and the hospital would be required to have a separate pediatric inpatient unit or pediatric intensive care unit, or a formal transfer agreement in place with a hospital that provides the services of a level-one pediatric emergency department. The hospital would also be required to maintain formal consultative relationships with specified physician pediatric subspecialists, who would be available for consultation within one hour of a request for consultation. The bill also requires that DOH compile data submitted annually by each general hospital from its pediatric emergency medicine registry pursuant to current department regulations, and to include in the annual New Jersey Hospital Performance Report hospital-specific data deemed by DOH to be most relevant for inclusion in the report. The bill would take effect on the first day of the sixth month after the date of enactment.

AI Summary

Gary Schaer (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Infrastructure Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document