ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction Task Force Recommendations Heart Attack Care

In 2013, the general assembly enacted SB 13-225, which established a task force in the department of public health and environment (department) to study and make recommendations for developing a statewide plan to improve quality of care to STEMI heart attack patients. ('STEMI' is an acronym for ST-elevation myocardial infarctions.) The study was to explore, among other things, the creation of a database for collecting data on STEMI care and access to aggregated STEMI data from the database for purposes of improving STEMI heart attack care.

The bill implements the following recommendations of the task force, with some modifications:

• Requires a hospital that is accredited as a STEMI receiving center to report to a specified national heart attack database data that is consistent with nationally recognized guidelines on individuals with confirmed heart attacks within the state;
• Within 30 days after receiving quarterly reports from the heart attack database, requires hospitals to submit those reports to the department;
• Specifies that reports obtained by the department are privileged and strictly confidential, are not subject to subpoena or discovery, and are not admissible in a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding; and
• Requires the department to sign a letter of commitment with the American College of Cardiology to ensure compliance with the confidentiality requirements and to request national reporting measures and metrics for benchmarking data.
  (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)