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New legislation praised, but no guarantee for medical safety

Accreditation Connection, June 8, 2009

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In 2008, the Southern Nevada Health District had 50,000 patients tested for HIV and hepatitis after an outbreak was believed to be caused by the reuse of syringes and vials, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. To prevent future outbreaks like this from happening, Nevada legislators have recently passed Assembly Bill 123, which will require ambulatory surgical clinics to be the subject of yearly, unannounced inspections instead of inspections every three to six years.

The state health division of Nevada will also assign a nurse to accompany all inspection teams to observe infection control, which should boost Nevadans' confidence in healthcare systems, said Larry Matheis, head of the Nevada State Medical Association, in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The Assembly Bills 10,112, 206, 362, and 495 were also passed as a result of the 2008 hepatitis C outbreak. "We now will have everyone on the same page in an emergency," says Assembly woman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks. "We had problems with coordinating what different offices were doing."

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