1.This Act may be cited as the
Enhancing Safety in Medicine Utilizing
Leading Advanced Simulation Technologies to Improve Outcomes Now Act of
2009
.
2.The Congress finds as follows:
(1)Simulation-based
education and training in medicine, nursing, allied health, podiatry,
osteopathy, dentistry, and emergency response teams can enhance procedural
skills and reinforce best practices by allowing students, experienced
clinicians, and health care professionals to practice procedures in a realistic
setting.
(2)The enhanced
clinical skill development provided by simulation-based training benefits
patients and health care consumers in the form of improved health outcomes,
patient safety, and quality; reduced medical errors and deaths; and reduced
costs associated with providing patient care.
(3)Many educational
institutions and health care providers, particularly those in urban and rural
settings, have difficulty acquiring medical simulation technology. Financial
assistance in the form of Federal grants would significantly enhance the
ability of these entities to deploy medical simulation technology and
incorporate such technology into training protocols.
(4)The creation of
medical simulation centers of excellence to provide guidance and leadership to
educational institutions and health care entities will facilitate the
deployment of medical simulation technologies and the commercialization of
cutting-edge medical simulation research.
(5)A
Federal medical simulation coordinating council would promote better
communication and collaboration between the Federal entities with experience or
interest in simulation-based education and medical simulation technology
deployment.
3.Medical
simulation enhancementPart B
of title IX of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299b et seq.) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
918.Medical
simulation enhancement
(a)The Director shall conduct and support research,
evaluations, initiatives, and demonstration projects, and provide grants or
enter into contracts or cooperative agreements, to enhance the deployment of
medical simulation technologies and the incorporation of such technologies and
equipment into medical, nursing, allied health, podiatric, osteopathic, and
dental education and training protocols.
(b)In
carrying out subsection (a), the Director shall establish the following
programs:
(1)Medical
simulation centers of excellence
(A)The
Director shall establish medical simulation centers of excellence—
(i)to
provide leadership and conduct research with respect to enhancing and expanding
the utilization of medical simulation technologies and simulation-based skills
training for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and qualified
students; and
(ii)to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of medical simulation research and
programs.
(B)Each
medical simulation center of excellence established under subsection (a)
shall—
(i)provide leadership
in a specific area of medical simulation technology or knowledge;
(ii)enhance and
expand the knowledge base within the specific area of medical simulation
technology or knowledge in line with the program requirements and the long-term
interests of the medical simulation community; and
(iii)serve as a
resource center to interested health professional schools and individuals who
want to learn about medical simulation.
(2)Medical
simulation innovationThe Director shall promote innovation in
medical simulation technologies and encourage development and deployment of
challenging and complex medical simulation technologies and applications
by—
(A)conducting and
supporting research on the development and deployment of complex or challenging
medical simulation and interdisciplinary simulation technologies;
(B)identifying, in
consultation with the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center,
particularly challenging or complex medical simulation technologies and
applications; and
(C)developing, in
consultation with the National Library of Medicine, an electronic clearinghouse
of medical simulation technologies currently available and those being
developed.
(3)Medical
simulation technology acquisition
(A)The
Director shall award grants to eligible entities for the purchase of medical
simulation technologies for use in the training of physicians, nurses, allied
health professionals, and qualified students.
(B)In this paragraph, the term eligible
entity means a hospital, an academic medical center, or a school of
allied health, dentistry, medicine, nursing, osteopathic medicine, or podiatric
medicine.
(4)Medical and
interdisciplinary simulation curricula
(A)The
Director shall award grants to eligible entities to incorporate medical
simulation and interdisciplinary simulation technologies into curricula and
training of physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals.
(B)In
this subsection, the term eligible entity means an academic
medical center or a school of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, dentistry,
nursing, or allied health.
(5)Grants to
professional organizations
(A)The
Director shall award grants to eligible entities to deploy medical simulation
technologies for the purpose of providing training to health care
providers.
(B)In
this paragraph, the term eligible entity means an academic medical
center, a professional organization that provides accreditation or quality
assurance to health care professionals, a health profession licensing board, or
an agency studying utilization of simulation-based methods in credentialing and
accreditation in health care.
(6)Federal Medical
Simulation Coordinating Council
(A)There
is established within the Department of Health and Human Services the Federal
Medical Simulation Coordinating Council (in this paragraph referred to as the
Coordinating Council
).
(B)The
Coordinating Council shall coordinate the Federal Government’s activities
regarding the research on and development, deployment, and utilization of
medical simulation technologies.
(C)The voting members of
the Coordinating Council shall consist of representatives of Federal agencies
with responsibility for improving health care delivery to patients, as
follows:
(i)A
majority of the voting members of the Coordinating Council shall be
representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services. Such majority
shall consist of the Director and such individuals as may be appointed by the
Secretary of Health and Human Services. At a minimum, the Secretary shall
appoint representatives of—
(I)the Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality;
(II)the National
Institutes of Health;
(III)the Health
Resources and Services Administration;
(IV)the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services; and
(V)the Food and Drug
Administration.
(ii)The remainder of
the voting members of the Coordinating Council shall consist of—
(I)representatives of
the Department of Defense, appointed by the Secretary of Defense; and
(II)representatives
of the Department of Veterans Affairs, appointed by the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs.
(D)In
addition to the voting members appointed pursuant to subparagraph (C), the
membership of the Coordinating Council shall include 2 representatives of the
advisory panel established under subsection (c) who—
(i)shall be selected
by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Defense, and
the Secretary of Veterans Affairs acting jointly;
(ii)shall be
nonvoting members; and
(iii)shall serve as
liaisons between the advisory panel and the Coordinating Council.
(E)The
Director shall serve as the Chair of the Coordinating Council and shall be
responsible for the leadership and oversight of the activities of the
Coordinating Council.
(F)In
carrying out the purpose described in subparagraph (B), the Coordinating
Council shall consult with outside organizations on ways to improve medical
simulation policy and access.
(G)
(i)The Coordinating Council shall meet regularly and no less
than 2 times each year.
(ii)Notice
of any upcoming meeting of the Coordinating Council shall be published in the
Federal Register.
(iii)Any meeting of the Coordinating Council shall be open to
the public.
(c)The Director shall establish an advisory panel to make
recommendations on how to structure the programs under subsection (b). The
members of such advisory panel shall consist of a total of at least 10
representatives of the medical simulation community, including representatives
of—
(1)academic medical
centers or schools of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, dentistry, nursing, or
allied health;
(2)health care
professionals who are actively involved in medical simulation centers;
and
(3)at least 2
multidisciplinary associations which are recognized as having a primary focus
on medical simulation.
(d)
(1)The term medical simulation means the use
of a device, such as a mannequin, a task trainer, virtual reality, or a
standardized patient, to emulate a real device, patient, or patient care
situation or environment to teach therapeutic and diagnostic procedures,
processes, medical concepts, and decisionmaking to a health care
professional.
(2)The term qualified student means a student
enrolled full-time or part-time in—
(A)a school of allied health, a school of
dentistry, a school of medicine, a school of osteopathic medicine, or a school
of podiatric medicine (as such terms are defined in section 799B); or
(B)a school of nursing (as such term is
defined in section 801).
(e)Authorization of
appropriationsTo carry out this section, there are authorized to
be appropriated—
(1)$50,000,000 for
fiscal year 2010; and
(2)such sums as may
be necessary for fiscal years 2011 through
2014.
.