S.Amdt. 2606

SA 2606. Mr. CORNYN (for himself and Mr. King) submitted an amendment
intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize
appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for military activities of the
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle E of title VII, add the following:

SEC. 750. REPORT ON MEDICAL INSTRUMENT STERILIZATION.

(a) Study Required.--
(1) In general.--The Inspector General of the Defense
Health Agency shall conduct a study on the adequacy of
sterilization of medical instruments at medical facilities of
the Defense Health Agency.
(2) Elements.--Each study required by paragraph (1) shall
include the following elements:
(A) A description of the processes or checks used to ensure
medical instruments are sterilized prior to use on patients
at medical facilities of the Defense Health Agency.
(B) A description of the policies and processes used to
identify and mitigate the use of insufficiently sterilized
medical instruments at such medical facilities and the
processes and timelines for informing patients of any such
near-miss (if any disclosure is required).
(C) An identification of the aggregate number of adverse
events or near-misses as a result of insufficiently
sterilized medical instruments at such medical facilities
during the period beginning on January 1, 2022, and ending on
January 1, 2024.
(D) A determination of primary factors that result in
insufficiently sterilized medical instruments at such medical
facilities.
(E) A description of the extent to which unsterilized
medical instruments have impacted the operation of such
medical facilities.
(F) An assessment of whether such medical facilities have
sufficient--
(i) medical instruments;
(ii) medical devices to timely clean and sterilize medical
instruments; and
(iii) staff to sterilize medical instruments.
(G) An assessment of whether staff at such medical
facilities are properly trained to sterilize medical
instruments.
(H) A determination of the number of surgeries at such
medical facilities that were delayed or rescheduled as a
result of unsterilized medical instruments.

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(I) Recommendations to improve the sterilization of medical
instruments at such medical facilities, including an
identification and evaluation of existing options, such as
mobile sterilization units and coordinating with community
medical centers to expand surgical capacity.
(J) An assessment of timely access to sterilization
products for medical instruments and devices.
(K) An assessment of the sterilization product supply chain
serving medical facilities of the Defense Health Agency.
(b) Report Required.--Not later than one year after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the
Defense Health Agency shall submit to Congress a report on
the study required by subsection (a), which shall include an
action plan to consider and implement the recommendations
included in such study.
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