AB 870

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

any other place where surgical procedures are performed (surgical facilities) to offer

surgical patients the option to have their surgical procedures videotaped and

discharge instructions recorded. Surgical facilities must provide notice of the option

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

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

performed upon a patient under conscious sedation, deep sedation, regional

anesthesia, or general anesthesia. If a patient makes a request to have a surgical

procedure recorded, the 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 continuously 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. The

bill requires that the recording must also include any preoperative communication

regarding the surgical procedure between the surgical practitioner and the patient

and any surgical time out, regardless of where those communications take place. 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 requests so long as certain conditions are

met, including that the surgical patient or other person authorized to make a

decision on behalf of the patient does not object. Under the bill, in certain limited

emergency circumstances, surgical facilities are not required to provide the option

of recording or to comply with a request for recording. If the facility is not required

to comply with a request for recording of a surgical procedure due to an emergency,

the facility must still provide the patient with the option to have the discharge

instructions recorded.

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