NRS439.865. Patient safety plan: Development; inclusion of infection control program to prevent and control infections; approval; notice; compliance; annual review and update.

      1.  Each medical facility that is located within this state shall develop, in consultation with the providers of health care who provide treatment to patients at the medical facility, an internal patient safety plan to improve the health and safety of patients who are treated at that medical facility.

      2.  The patient safety plan must include, without limitation:

      (a) The patient safety checklists and patient safety policies most recently adopted pursuant to NRS 439.877.

      (b) An infection control program to prevent and control infections within the medical facility. To carry out the program, the medical facility shall adopt an infection control policy. The policy must consist of:

             (1) The current guidelines appropriate for the facility’s scope of service developed by a nationally recognized infection control organization as approved by the State Board of Health which may include, without limitation, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America; and

             (2) Facility-specific infection control developed under the supervision of a certified infection preventionist.

      3.  The program to prevent and control infections within the medical facility must provide for the designation of a person who is responsible for infection control when the infection control officer is absent to ensure that someone is responsible for infection control at all times.

      4.  A medical facility shall submit its patient safety plan to the governing board of the medical facility for approval in accordance with the requirements of this section.

      5.  After a medical facility’s patient safety plan is approved, the medical facility shall notify all providers of health care who provide treatment to patients at the medical facility of the existence of the plan and of the requirements of the plan. A medical facility shall require compliance with its patient safety plan.

      6.  The patient safety plan must be reviewed and updated annually in accordance with the requirements for approval set forth in this section.

      (Added to NRS by 2002 Special Session, 15; A 2011, 679, 1583)