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Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act

Introduced: March 18, 2009 Introduced by: Schakowsky, Janice D. Democratic · Illinois See on congress.gov
 Everywhere this bill has been 6 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Apr 23, 2009
Referred to the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture.
Mar 19, 2009
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
Mar 18, 2009
Referred to House Agriculture
Mar 18, 2009
Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Mar 18, 2009
Referred to House Energy and Commerce
Mar 18, 2009
Introduced in House
 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to conduct research to assess: (1) the standardization of critical care protocols, intensive care unit layout, equipment interoperability, and medical informatics; and (2) the impact of differences in staffing, organization, size, and structure of intensive care units on access, quality, and efficiency of care.

Requires the Secretary to undertake demonstration projects to: (1) optimize the provision of critical care services to Medicare beneficiaries through innovations in such areas as staffing and utilization of technology; and (2) measure and evaluate outcomes derived from a "family-centered" approach to the provision of inpatient critical care services that includes direct and sustained communication and contact with the beneficiary family members, involvement of family members in the critical care decisionmaking process, and responsiveness of critical care providers to family requests.

Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990 to authorize appropriations for FY2010-FY2012 for augmenting the delivery of critical care services in the rural inpatient setting through the use of telecommunications systems that allow for consultation with critical care providers not located in the rural facility regarding the care of such patients. Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to give preference in awarding telehealth grant funds to entities to develop plans for, or to establish, such critical care telehealth networks.

Requires the Secretary to undertake an initiative to recruit providers of critical care services into the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.

What's happening now April 23, 2009

Referred to the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture.

 Committees of jurisdiction 4