AB 913

This bill creates a requirement for hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, or

any other places where surgical procedures are performed — referred to in the bill

as surgical facilities — to offer surgical patients the option to have their surgical

procedures and discharge instructions videotaped. Surgical facilities must provide

notice of the option and all related procedures and conditions set forth in the bill. For

purposes of this bill, a surgical procedure is one for which a surgical or other invasive

procedure is performed upon a patient under conscious sedation, deep sedation, or

general anesthesia. If a patient makes a request to have a surgical procedure

recorded, this bill requires that the surgical facility, or its designee, record the

surgical procedure with both audio and color video. When recording of a surgical

procedure is requested, the facility must record with color video and audio all activity

in the surgical suite from the time preparation for the surgery begins until all activity

related to the surgery, including cleanup, is complete. If the surgical patient is

incapacitated, the surgical facility is required to provide another authorized person

with notice of the option for video recording, and that person may request that a

recording be made. Similarly, if the surgical patient is a minor, the surgical facility

must notify a parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the option for video recording

and allow that person to make a request for a recording on behalf of the minor. A

patient may also request that his or her discharge instructions be recorded. The

surgical facility may determine if these instructions will be videotaped or

audiotaped. The bill also allows a physician or certain other individual who holds

a valid license or other credential that allows him or her to perform surgical

procedures and who is scheduled to perform a surgical patient's surgical procedure

to request that a recording be made. A health care provider who provides the patient

with discharge instructions may also request that those instructions, as provided, be

recorded. A surgical facility must comply with these provider requests so long as

certain conditions are met, including that the surgical patient or person authorized

by the patient does not object. Under the bill, in certain limited emergency

circumstances, surgical facilities are not required to provide the option of recording.

The bill also allows the Department of Health Services to grant limited waivers from

the requirements, if the facility provides evidence of a compelling need, financial or

otherwise.

In return for exercising the option to have a surgical procedure recorded, under

the bill, the surgical patient or another person on behalf of the patient may not

disclose the recording except to limited authorized individuals, unless

confidentiality is waived by the health care provider or surgical practitioner that is

a subject of the video recording. Video recordings of surgical procedures created

under this bill are otherwise treated as patient health care records and are subject

to the same protections as other patient health care records, including all criminal

and civil penalties for improper disclosure or destruction. The bill specifies that, once