AB 111

Under current law, the attending physician or nurse-midwife must ensure that

every infant born undergoes a blood test for congenital disorders and metabolic

disorders and a screening for hearing loss. This bill requires the physician,

nurse-midwife, or certified professional midwife, who attended a birth that occurred

in or on route to a hospital to ensure that the infant is screened for a congenital heart

defect using pulse oximetry, or a method designated by the Department of Health

Services (DHS), before the infant is discharged from the hospital, with certain

exceptions. The bill also requires the physician, nurse-midwife, or certified

professional midwife, who attended the birth to ensure that a parent or legal

guardian of the infant is advised of the screening result and, if the infant has an

abnormal screening result, to ensure that a parent or legal guardian of the infant is

provided information on available resources for further diagnosis and treatment for

a possible congenital heart defect.

The bill requires DHS to periodically review medical literature for new,

evidence-based practices in congenital heart defect screening. If a congenital heart

defect screening method becomes accepted in the medical community as an effective

screening method, DHS is required to designate that method as an appropriate

screening method to comply with the screening requirement. DHS may replace pulse

oximetry with that method as the only appropriate screening method by rule.