Senate Bill S8964

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8964

SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to automated external
defibrillators

 
PURPOSE:

Clarifies the allowability of fully-automated automated external defi-
brillators (AEDs.)

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 1 of section 3000-b of the
public health law to remove the words "upon action by an operator" in
the definition of an AED.

Section 2 provides an immediate effective date.

 
              

JUSTIFICATION:

Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are a medical device that, when
placed on a person experiencing cardiac arrest, can analyze heart
rhythms and deliver a potentially life-saving electrical shock.  In New
York, their possession and use is authorized by Public Health Law
section 3000-b, which defines them and spells out various requirements.

For decades, AEDs were partially-automated in that they required the
user to both place them on the patient and then press one or more
buttons to deliver the shock. The statutory definition of AEDs therefore
describes the devices as meeting certain conditions such as being capa-
ble of recognizing presence or absence of fibrillation, determining
"without intervention by an operator" whether defibrillation should be
performed, and "upon action by an operator" delivering the appropriate
shock. (The "action by an operator" presumably being the act of pressing
additional buttons once the machine is attached to the patient.)

However, since the law was enacted, AEDs have evolved to be more "user-
friendly." There are now both partially automated models (in which the
user must press buttons to administer the shock) and fully automated (in
which the shock is automatic once the device determines appropriate-
ness.) They are also more widely available, for example they can now be
bought on Amazon even by private citizens. Therefore it is important
that the law and rules governing them remain in step with current tech-
nology and practice.

Current law's requirement that the shock be delivered "upon action by an
operator" creates confusion. In some cases, providers who have purchased
fully-automated AEDs have been threatened with fines for being out of
compliance with this aspect of the law. As the technology changes,
providers should not be discouraged from modernizing their equipment -
let alone threatened with fines - due to overly restrictive statutory
interpretations. Therefore this bill provides clarity by removing the
words "upon action by an operator," in order to signal clearly that
providers and public entities can purchase and deploy either partially-
or fully-automatic AEDs.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate