SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department of public health (“the department”) shall create a real-time, statewide, Hospital Capacity Coordination Dashboard. To support these efforts, the department of public health shall collaborate with healthcare providers with clinical, emergency management, and hospital operations expertise and members of the legislature. This dashboard shall be a real-time, electronic tool to, at a minimum, gather, report, and facilitate data related to managing hospital capacity, capability, and available beds in hospitals across the Commonwealth in the event of a public health emergency or other surge in patient need.

Said data should ensure and understanding of relevant individual hospital, regional, and statewide bed availability. The department may also include other data points as deemed relevant to the purpose of monitoring local, regional, and statewide hospital capacity and capability, situational awareness, and facilitation of patient load balancing efforts.

SECTION 2. The department, the executive office of technology services, and the executive office of health and human services shall provide the staffing and funding for this dashboard and the operational costs for the final Hospital Capacity Coordination Dashboard, subject to future appropriation by the legislature explicitly for this purpose.

SECTION 3. Upon completion of the electronic Hospital Capacity Coordination Dashboard tool and any corresponding governance or use guideline documents, a healthcare coalition, representing medical providers broadly, shall assume control of the Dashboard, and manage the operations of this tool, and be given administrative control of the tool, including the data produced for and by the Hospital Capacity Coordination Dashboard.

SECTION 4. Within 1 year following the effective date of this act, the department shall complete the electronic tool.