Bill > SB357

This bill establishes an Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Pilot Program, allowing up to six general acute care hospitals in California that are licensed for cardiac catheterization laboratory services to perform scheduled, elective PCI procedures for eligible patients, even if they do not have onsite cardiac surgery services. PCI, or percutaneous coronary intervention, refers to procedures like angioplasty and stent placement used to open blocked coronary arteries. The program defines "elective PCI" as scheduled procedures, distinguishing them from urgent or emergent ones, and sets strict criteria for participating "eligible hospitals" and the "interventionalists" who can perform these procedures, including specific annual procedure volumes, on-call staffing, data tracking, and transfer agreements with "receiving hospitals" that have cardiac surgery services. The bill also outlines requirements for hospital infrastructure, staffing, patient selection based on risk, and data reporting, with an advisory oversight committee to monitor the program, which is set to expire on January 1, 2015, unless extended.