Sec.19-13-D14. Minimum requirements for licensing maternity hospitals

For the purpose of this section, “maternity hospital” or “lying-in place” means a place into which women are received for professional care because of pregnancy. Each maternity hospital affected by section 19-43 of the general statutes shall comply with the following requirements before a license is issued:

(a) Medical service. There shall be a resident physician or consulting physician for each maternity hospital who shall assume responsibility for the general adequacy of medical nursing care rendered in the institution and who shall be available for emergency in case of need, provided a practitioner of a healing art entitled by law to practice obstetrics may conduct a maternity hospital with a resident or consulting practitioner of a healing art licensed to practice surgery.

(b) Nursing service. Each maternity hospital shall have a registered nurse in attendance at all times for the mothers and infants and such nurse shall not attend patients on any other service.

(c) Cleanliness and management. The building, equipment and surroundings shall be kept clean at all times and the management and operation of the hospital shall be such as reasonably to ensure the health, comfort and safety of the patients.

(d) Building, space and equipment requirements. The building, space and equipment requirements for a maternity hospital shall be provided for as follows:

(1) Fire protection. The buildings, equipment and precautions taken to provide for the safety of patients and employees in case of fire shall be approved by the state commissioner of health.

(2) A separate unit. To insure complete segregation of maternity patients and new-born infants from other types of patients, a maternity hospital operated as a part of a general hospital shall be in a separate unit of the institution and either have its own separate sterilization equipment and supplies or be furnished with sterile supplies from a central sterilizing room.

(3) Nursery. Each maternity hospital shall maintain a separate room for a nursery with a bassinet for each baby and one incubator for a premature infant, for every ten or fewer bassinets. This is not to be construed to preclude rooming-in accommodations when the hospital has adequate facilities, including hot and cold running water, for the care of the mothers and infants.

(4) Delivery room. Each maternity hospital shall have a separate delivery room which shall not be used for any patient with an infection.

(5) Space between beds. There shall be a space of at least three feet between beds.

(6) Isolation facilities. A separate room shall be available for the isolation of patients who develop evidence of infection. Any indication of infection shall be reported immediately to the physician who has assumed responsibility for adequacy of care in the institution. Any obstetrical patient with a mouth temperature of 100.4°F. or more (excluding the first twenty-four hours after delivery) for a period longer than twenty-four hours, as well as any other infection which may be contagious irrespective of temperature readings, shall be isolated from other maternity patients. Any infant showing evidence of infection of any kind or any infant exposed to an infected mother shall be removed from the nursery. Isolation technique shall be observed for all such cases.

(7) Temperature. The heating equipment shall be such as will maintain a temperature of not less than 70°F. No oil or gas heater shall be used in a room unless it is directly connected with a flue which opens to the outside air.

(8) Laboratory. There shall be laboratory equipment and reagents necessary to test urine for albumin, sugar and acetone bodies.

(9) Other equipment. Each maternity hospital shall have adequate equipment for resuscitation of infants.

(e) Records. A complete record of each case shall be kept which shall include items of information as may be required by the state department of health and shall include all items necessary to fill out a death certificate for the mother and all items necessary to fill out a birth certificate or a death certificate for the baby, together with steps taken in handling the case.

(f) Required procedure. The following procedures shall be carried out for each case admitted to a maternity hospital:

(1) Each patient shall be attended by a practitioner of the healing arts licensed to practice obstetrics or by a midwife.

(2) A specimen of blood shall be taken from each patient for the Wasserman or Kahn or similar test and submitted to a laboratory approved by the state department of health, unless the attending physician writes and signs a note in the record that such test is not necessary.

(3) Before removal from the delivery room, each newborn infant shall be marked for identification with a mark which shall not be removed while the child is in the hospital.

(4) All drugs, disinfecting solution and other preparations kept in the institution shall be distinctly and correctly labeled and kept readily available in a place approved by the state department of health.

(5) Section 19-92 of the general statutes reads as follows: “Any inflammation, swelling or unusual redness in the eyes of any infant, either apart from or with any unnatural discharge from the eyes of such infant, occurring at any time within two weeks after the birth of such infant, shall, for the purposes of this section, be designated as ‘inflammation of the eyes of the newborn.' The professional attendant or other person caring for a newborn infant shall report any such inflammation of the eyes of the newborn to the local director of health within six hours after such condition is observed. The person in attendance at the birth of any infant shall instill into the eyes of such infant, immediately after birth, one or two drops of a prophylactic solution approved by the state department of health. The state department of health shall furnish in a convenient form for such use a prophylactic solution for gratuitous distribution to persons licensed to practice the healing arts or midwifery. Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars.”

(g) Duration of license. Each license shall terminate on the thirty-first day of December of each year. A license may be revoked at any time for just cause.