NC H650

Requires all hospitals licensed in North Carolina to adopt and implement policies requiring smoke evacuation systems during any surgical procedure likely to generate surgical smoke.

Requires all ambulatory surgical facilities licensed in North Carolina to adopt and implement policies requiring smoke evacuation systems during any surgical procedure likely to generate surgical smoke.

Defines smoke evacuation systems as stand-alone, portable equipment that captures, filters, and eliminates surgical smoke at the site of origin before contact with occupants' eyes or respiratory tracts; equipment does not need to be interconnected to hospital ventilation or medical gas systems.

Defines surgical smoke as gaseous by-products from energy-generating devices, including surgical plume, bio-aerosols, laser-generated airborne contaminants, and lung-damaging dust.

The Department of Health and Human Services may take adverse action against hospitals or ambulatory surgical facilities for violations of these requirements.

Effective date: January 1, 2024.