FILED ON: 6/9/2022

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2933

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act regulating central service technicians.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 111 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 244. (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

“Allied health professional”, a person who holds and maintains a registration, certification or license to perform health care services by a state or a nationally accredited credentialing organization.

“Central service technician”, a person who decontaminates, inspects, assembles, packages or sterilizes reusable medical instruments or devices used by a health care facility.

“Health care practitioner”, a person licensed or registered under this chapter or chapter 112, including an intern, resident, fellow or medical officer who conducts or assists with the performance of surgery.

“Health care facility”, a hospital, as defined in section 52, a rural hospital, as defined in said section 52, or a free-standing ambulatory surgery center that provides inpatient or outpatient surgical services regardless of whether such services are conducted for charity or for profit or whether the center is subject to section 25C; provided, however, that “health care facility" shall not include a dental office or private office of a health care practitioner.

(b) A health care facility shall not employ, or otherwise contract with, a central service technician unless, not more than 18 months after the date of hire, the central service technician has successfully passed a nationally accredited central service exam for central service technicians and holds and maintains 1 of the following credentials administered by a nationally accredited central service technician credentialing organization: (i) the certified registered central service technician credential; (ii) the certified sterile processing and distribution technician credential; or (iii) a credential that is substantially equivalent to the credential in clause (i) or clause (ii) as determined by the department.             

(c) A central service technician employed by or who contracts with a health care facility shall annually complete 10 hours of continuing education credits in the area related to the functions of a central service technician.

(d) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the following persons from performing the tasks or functions of a central service technician: (i) a health care practitioner; (ii) an allied health professional; or (iii) a student or intern performing the functions of a central service technician under the direct supervision of a health care as part of the student’s or intern’s training or internship.

(e) A health care facility shall, upon the written request of a central service technician, verify, in writing, the central service technician’s dates of employment or the contract period during which the central service technician provided services to the health care facility.

SECTION 2. An individual person employed to provide, or who has otherwise been contracted with to provide, services as a central service technician by a health care facility on or before the effective date of this act shall comply with the credential requirement under subsection (b) of section 244 of chapter 111 of the General Laws not later than 2 years after the effective date of this act.

SECTION 3. Section 1 shall take effect 18 months after the effective date of this act.