PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · May 12, 2009
Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), to conduct research to assess: (1) the standardization of critical care protocols, intensive care unit layout, equipment interoperability, and medical informatics; and (2) the impact of differences in staffing, organization, size, and structure of intensive care units on access, quality, and efficiency of care.
Requires the Secretary to undertake demonstration projects to: (1) optimize the provision of critical care services to Medicare beneficiaries through innovations in such areas as staffing and utilization of technology; and (2) measure and evaluate outcomes derived from a "family-centered" approach to the provision of inpatient critical care services that includes direct and sustained communication and contact with the beneficiary family members, involvement of family members in the critical care decisionmaking process, and responsiveness of critical care providers to family requests.
Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act of 1990 to authorize appropriations for FY2010-FY2015 for augmenting the delivery of critical care services in the rural or other medically underserved area inpatient setting through the use of telecommunications systems that allow for consultation with critical care providers not located in the rural or other medically underserved area facility regarding the care of such patients. Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to give preference in awarding telehealth grant funds to entities to develop plans for, or to establish, such critical care telehealth networks.
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Requires the Secretary to undertake an initiative to recruit providers of critical care services into the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program.
People & committees
Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI] · D–RI
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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