STAND. COM. REP. NO.385
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: S.B. No. 745
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2003
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 745 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to integrate emergency aeromedical services into statewide emergency medical services, to establish an emergency aeromedical system and quality improvement committee to review and recommend improvement to emergency aeromedical services, and to appropriate funds for an intra-county helicopter aeromedical service for the County of Maui.
Testimony supporting this measure was received from the Department of Health, Mayor of Maui County, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, and five individuals. Hawaii Air Ambulance, Inc., submitted testimony opposing part I and supporting part II of this measure.
Your Committee finds that the availability of rapid and efficient emergency aeromedical services is determinative of the extent of recovery from a traumatic injury. The longer the delay in receiving appropriate and necessary trauma care, the more likely an injury may result in the death of a patient. The neighbor islands, in particular, have a special need for emergency aeromedical services due to their lack of sufficient acute care services, long geographic distances that must be traveled to reach service providers, and prevalence of remote areas without immediate access to emergency medical services. Your Committee finds that this measure ensures that emergency aeromedical services is an integral part of emergency medical services for the entire State.
Furthermore, this measure is not intended to supplant existing ground or Fixed-wing emergency medical services. Your Committee believes that this measure will further provide a complete array of emergency medical transport options to ensure availability and dispatch of the appropriate mode of transport for every medical emergency.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Confining the definition of "emergency aeromedical services" to those services and transports by rotary-wing aircraft;
(2) Deleting the provisions creating an aeromedical services quality improvement committee and requiring the Department of Health to use an emergency aeromedical services quality improvement committee comprised of representatives of trauma, emergency, and tertiary care physicians and providers to analyze information collected from the aeromedical quality improvement performance measures as established by the American College of Surgeons, and to recommend system standards and resources to maintain and improve the Hawaii emergency aeromedical services system;
(3) Clarifying that the appropriation made by this measure shall be for funding an emergency helicopter aeromedical service for the County of Maui and encouraging the Department of Health to partner with Maui County, health care providers, and the private sector to ensure that this necessary service is provided in the most cost efficient manner, utilizing all available resources;
(4) Deleting the appropriation amount and leaving it blank for determination by your Committee on Ways and Means; and
(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style and clarity.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 745, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 745, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair |
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