SRC-SEW S.B. 531 77(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.B. 531
77R5569 JRD-DBy: Nelson
State Affairs
3/22/2001
As Filed


DIGEST AND PURPOSE 

Each year more than 25,000 adults suffer cardiac arrest, and more than 95
percent of those adults die, in many cases because defibrillation occurs
too late to reverse the cardiac arrest.  For every minute that passes
before returning the heart to a normal rhythm after cardiac arrest, as one
would do by delivering an electric shock to the heart using an automated
external defibrillator (AED), the chance of survival is decreased by 10
percent.  Last year, Houston became the first major city in the nation to
develop a plan for the placement of AEDs in its municipal facilities, and
the American Heart Association advocates the placement of AEDs in public
buildings in order to increase the cardiac arrest survival rate.  As
proposed, S.B. 531 directs the Texas Department of Health to develop a plan
for the placement of AEDs in state buildings. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a
state officer, institution, or agency. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Requires the Texas Department of Health (department), in
consultation with the General Services Commission (commission), to conduct
a study regarding the purchase and placement of automated external
defibrillators in buildings owned or leased by the state.  Requires the
department to estimate the extent to which placing automated external
defibrillators in state buildings would improve the survival rate of
individuals who experience sudden cardiac arrest while in a state building.
Requires the department in consultation with the commission to also study
certain other stated factors concerning the placement of automated external
defibrillators in state buildings.  Requires the department to report the
results of its study together with any recommendations of the department or
the commission to the governor and the presiding officers of each house of
the legislature not later than November 1, 2002.   

SECTION 2.  Provides that this Act expires June 1, 2003.

SECTION 3.  Effective date:  September 1, 2001.