H.B. 965 78(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


H.B. 965
By: Mercer
Public Health
Committee Report (Unamended)


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Each year more than 250,000 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. HB 965
directs the Texas Department of Health in consultation with the Texas
Education Agency to develop a plan for the placement of AEDs in High
School Buildings 


RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any
additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or
institution. 

ANALYSIS

This Bill requires the Texas Department of Health (department), in
consultation with the Texas Education Agency, to conduct a study regarding
the purchase and placement of automated external defibrillators in public
high school buildings. In addition the bill requires the department to
estimate the extent to which placing automated external defibrillators in
public high school buildings  would improve the survival rate of
individuals who experience sudden cardiac arrest. The bill also requires
the department in consultation with the  Texas Education Agency to study
certain other stated factors concerning the placement of automated
external defibrillators in public high school buildings. The department is
required to report the results of its study together with any
recommendations of the department or Texas Education Agency  to the
Governor and the presiding officers of each house of the legislature not
later than November 1, 2004. Provides that this Act expires June 1, 2005.  


EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2003.