CA AB1164

Licensed general acute care hospitals with emergency departments must calculate and record a crowding score at minimum every 4 hours using a specified equation to assess emergency department crowding conditions.

Hospitals may calculate crowding scores every 8 hours instead of 4 hours if they have not recorded a level 4 or higher score in the previous 30 days; hospitals with fewer than 14,000 annual emergency visits must calculate scores daily between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Each hospital must determine the crowding score ranges for its own emergency department across six crowding scale categories, with level one representing lowest crowding and level six representing highest crowding.

By January 1, 2025, hospitals must develop and implement a full-capacity protocol for each crowding category addressing hospital operations, emergency department operations, staff notification, and organized medical staff coordination.

Hospitals must file their full-capacity protocols with the Department of Health Care Access and Information and report any annual revisions to their protocols.