Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 132 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to adopt the Hospital Infections Disclosure Act that requires hospitals to establish a system of infection data gathering and reporting to the Department of Health and the public.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii's hospitals are too diverse in the patient populations they serve and the services they offer to permit meaningful comparison of nosocomial infection rates. The measure erroneously assumes that publication of comparisons of infection rates will stimulate hospitals to reduce those rates for competitive reasons. However, most of Hawaii's hospitals operate at near full capacity. Furthermore, the necessary groundwork to implement a hospital-acquired infection reporting system is not yet in place to allow useful comparison of infection rates and quality of care among different hospitals.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and replacing it with a measure that establishes a task force in the Department of Health to design a system for reporting hospital-acquired infections to the public.

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. 132, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 132, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing.