Legislation

Below is a summary of recently enacted legislation relevant to the Coalition's mission to improve the quality of care at end-of-life for all Rhode Islanders.

Recently Enacted Legislation

RI Public Law 98-2282  mandates the Department of Health to develop, measure, and report the quality of health care for all Rhode Island Health Care Institutions. Starting spring, 2000 the Department of Health will measure consumer satisfaction with acute care hospitals. Following that, the Department of Health will develop quality indicators for nursing homes. As they are doing with hospitals, the DOH will report the first set of quality indicators only to nursing homes, giving them a year to improve prior to annual public release.

RI Public Law 97-359 calls upon state government to draft plans for an integrated long-term care delivery system: "understandable, efficient, responsive, and easy to access." Directors from the Department of Health, Department of Elderly Affairs, Department of Human Services, and Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals endorsed efforts to create a seamless, long-term care system.

RI Public Law 99-0479  increase the schedule units to a maximum of 250 units of opiates that can be prescribed, and allows facsimile (or FAX) machines for writing of opiate prescriptions in nursing homes and hospices. 

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