Establishes training and registration requirements for kidney dialysis patient care technicians

BILL NUMBER:S1448

Title of bill

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing training and registration requirements for kidney dialysis patient care technicians

Purpose

This bill establishes training and registration requirements for kidney dialysis patient care technicians.

Summary of provisions

Section 1: Adds a new Article 37-B to the public health law. The provisions are as follows:

Section 3720 - Defines the terms "kidney dialysis patient care technician" and "kidney dialysis patient care technician trainee".

Section 3721 - The Commissioner of Health, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education, shall establish training requirements fox kidney dialysis patient care technicians. Such requirements shall have clearly defined criteria for evaluating and training such persons. The law provides a list of entities that may provide training of such technicians and topics to be studied by such technician trainees.

Section 3722 - No person may perform the work of a kidney dialysis patient care technician without satisfying the provisions of this act.

Section 3723 - This bill grants an exemption for certain technicians so that they will have sufficient time to satisfy the training requirements of the act. Further, this will ensure that there is a readily available supply of such technicians so that such services can be provided in the near term, but with the understanding that in the long term all technicians will be trained and qualified to perform such services.

Section 2: This act shall take effect immediately; except that section 3722 of the public health law, as added by section one of this act, shall take effect one year after the effective date of this act, and the commissioner of health is immediately authorized and directed to promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of such section 3722 on the effective date thereof.

Existing law

None

Justification

Currently, there is no baseline educational or training requirements that need to be satisfied to be employed as a kidney dialysis patient care technician. An individual need only complete a health care facility unit based orientation, which is usually of 6 to 8 weeks in duration.

This may be insufficient time to properly train and orient such a technician for all of the duties of their job. However, the current system expects such persons to be a fully functional team member in this specialized field of medicine. Because there is no standardization of training programs, orientation programs differ within a facility and between facilities. This non-standardization of training may negatively impact on patient care.

Legislative history

2014: S.5270 - Referred to Health 2013: S.5270 - Referred to Health

Fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately; except that section 3722 of the public health law, as added by section one of this act, shall take effect one year after the effective date of this act, and the commissioner of health is immediately authorized and directed to promulgate any rules and regulations necessary to implement the provisions of such section 3722 on the effective date thereof.