Implement St-elevation myocardial infarctions STEMI Task Force Recommendations

In 2013, the general assembly enacted SB 13-225, which established a task force in the department of public health and environment (department) to study and make recommendations for developing a statewide plan to improve quality of care to STEMI heart attack patients. ('STEMI' is an acronym for ST-elevation myocardial infarctions.) The study was to explore, among other things, the creation of a database for collecting data on STEMI care and access to aggregated STEMI data from the database for purposes of improving STEMI heart attack care.

The bill implements the following recommendations of the task force, with some modifications:

• Requires hospitals that are accredited as STEMI receiving centers to report to a specified national heart attack database data that is consistent with nationally recognized guidelines on individuals with confirmed heart attacks within the state;
• Upon receipt of quarterly reports from the heart attack database, requires hospitals accredited as STEMI receiving centers to submit those reports to the department for Colorado-specific data analysis;
• Specifies that the heart attack data provided to the department is privileged, confidential, not discoverable, and to be used only to evaluate and improve hospital STEMI care, and requires the department to sign a letter of commitment to ensure its compliance with confidentiality requirements;
• Establishes a heart attack advisory committee in the department to provide general technical expertise on matters related to heart attack care and data analysis; and
• Allows the department to share blinded data from the database with the heart attack advisory committee for purposes of conducting Colorado-specific analyses of gaps in heart attack care.

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)