Report Title:

Wireless Electrocardiogram Data Transmission; Pilot Project

 

Description:

Requires department of health to establish a 2-year pilot project on Oahu to equip paramedics to transmit electrocardiogram data in the field or in ambulances directly to a hospital's emergency room or to a cardiologist prior a cardiac patient's arrival at an emergency room.  Makes appropriation from the emergency medical services special fund.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2063

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

relating to emergency medical services.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that time is of the essence for heart attack patients because irreversible or potentially fatal damage to the heart can occur quickly.  An estimated 1,200,000 individuals experience heart attacks annually, resulting in 495,000 deaths.  Studies have shown that when a heart attack is caused by a blood clot blocking a patient's artery, clearing the vessel within ninety minutes reduces the risk of death by forty per cent.  However, a heart attack patient en route to an emergency room often suffers unnecessary but deadly delay in receiving appropriate treatment because official diagnosis normally is not made until the patient actually arrives at the emergency room and a cardiologist is summoned to make the diagnosis.

     The legislature further finds that hospitals in North Caroline and Arkansas have taken steps to shorten these deadly delays by having paramedics wirelessly transmit patients' electrocardiogram data from the field or in ambulances either directly to cardiologist staff or to staff in waiting emergency rooms.  Electrocardiograms measure the electrical activity of the heart and can show signs of damage to the heart muscle as it is occurring.  Under the wireless transmission system, paramedics in the field detecting signs of a heart attack transmit electrocardiogram readings by means of a wireless modem to a cardiologist at an emergency room.  This helps to hasten the diagnosis so that the cardiologist can mobilize the appropriate staff and equipment prior to the heart attack patient's arrival.  These wireless transmissions can be sent either to a fixed station in an emergency room or directly to a cardiologist through a mobile handheld receiver.  The wireless transmission system in North Carolina has reportedly reduced the time for patients to receive appropriate lifesaving treatment by more than one hour compared to the national average.  The time elapsed for each patient from arrival at the hospital to receiving treatment ranged from twenty-seven to thirty-five minutes as opposed to the national average of one hundred to one hundred five minutes.

     The purpose of this Act is to provide for a two-year pilot project to implement wireless electrocardiogram data transmission by paramedics in the field or in ambulances either to staff at fixed receiving stations in hospital emergency rooms or to cardiologists using mobile receivers.

     SECTION 2.  Wireless transmission of electrocardiogram data; two-year pilot project on Oahu; equipment; funding; report.  (a)  The department of health shall establish a two-year pilot project to implement wireless electrocardiogram data transmission by paramedics in the field or in ambulances either to staff at fixed receiving stations in hospital emergency rooms or to cardiologists using mobile receivers.  The project shall include the equipping of ambulances on the island of Oahu with the appropriate transmission equipment such as the cardiac action life link, which is used in Arkansas and was developed by Verizon Wireless and Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services, an ambulance operator in Arkansas, or similar equipment.

     (b)  The pilot project shall be funded from the emergency medical services special fund established pursuant to section 321‑234, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     (c)  The director of health shall submit written interim and final reports of findings and recommendations, including any necessary proposed legislation, concerning the operation of the pilot project to the legislature no later than December 15, 2008, and December 15, 2009.

     (d)  The pilot project shall terminate on June 30, 2009.

     SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the emergency medical services special fund the sum of $        or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009 for the wireless electrocardiogram data transmission pilot project on Oahu.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval, except that section 3 shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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