Hospitals and surgery centers in Iowa will be required to install surgical smoke abatement systems in their centers by July 1, 2021, if state legislators enact HSB 510, SouthernMinn.com reports.
What you should know:
1. The law would require facilities to capture and neutralize surgical plume before it could come into contact with clinicians' or patients' eyes or respiratory system.
2. Healthcare industry lobbyists expressed concern over the bill's aggressive timeline.
3. Those concerns were countered by representatives of the Iowa Hospital Association and West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, who said many of the would-be affected facilities already had smoke evacuation systems or were in the process of adding such systems.
4. A House subcommittee said it would revisit the proposal once lobbyists had time to gather appropriate facts.