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last month, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed into law leg-
islation that requires the state's hospitals and ambulatory surgery
centers to enact policies for eliminating surgical smoke during
plume-generating procedures.
"The law was intentionally drafted to be deferential to individual
facility's needs," says Danielle Glover, associate director of gov-
ernment affairs at AORN. "Facilities have the flexibility to adopt
policies that work best for them, which will most likely address
responsibilities, documentation, quality assurance, and education
and training."
Surgical staff can file complaints with the Rhode Island
Department of Health if their facility doesn't submit a report con-
firming the adoption of smoke evacuation policies or if a facility's
policy is not being followed, says Ms. Glover, who notes that the
Inside the R.I. Smoke Evacuation Law
GOVERNMENT WATCH
• CAPITOL GAINS Surgical facilities in Rhode Island have until April 1, 2019 to outfit ORs with smoke evacuation
devices.
