This bill creates a new statewide cardiac and stroke system of care in Title 70 RCW, establishing a new chapter (sections 1–8) and a statewide cardiac and stroke registry. It is a new statute that requires the Washington State Department of Health to develop care system standards, categorize stroke and cardiac centers, collect registry data, evaluate performance, and use registry data for continuous quality improvement, oversight, analysis, technical assistance, education, and dissemination of interventions. The department may adopt rules and enter into data‑sharing agreements to implement the registry and related activities. The bill imposes procedural requirements by requiring hospitals, beginning July 1, 2027, to submit required registry data quarterly, and emergency medical services providers to submit required registry data through the Washington emergency medical services information system beginning the same date. The department must provide an annual aggregate summary report and analysis posted on its website and submitted to the governor and relevant legislative committees beginning July 1, 2028; the 2028 report must include analysis and recommendations on whether on-site verification of hospitals’ adherence to standards is needed. It also establishes confidentiality protections for registry data elements that identify individual patients, providers, or facilities, making those elements exempt from public disclosure, subpoena, and admissibility as evidence. The act recodifies RCW 70.168.150 into the new chapter and references an emergency cardiac and stroke technical advisory committee created in RCW 70.168.020. It defines key terms (department, emergency medical services providers, hospital, registry) and identifies affected entities, including the Department of Health, hospitals licensed under chapter 70.41 RCW, ambulance and aid services under chapter 18.73 RCW, EMS and trauma regions, and the technical advisory committee. Several department supports (assistance to rural/critical access hospitals, equipment and training support for prehospital services, and public education) are stated to occur only within funds appropriated for those purposes. Important details not included here are the text of the recodified RCW 70.168.150, the advisory committee’s specific duties under RCW 70.168.020, the registry data elements and submission standards (left to department rulemaking), exact appropriation amounts, and the final new chapter number in Title 70.

If enacted, the Department of Health will run a statewide cardiac and stroke program and require hospitals to send patient and performance data every quarter starting July 1, 2027, and emergency medical services to submit data through the state EMS information system. That will add ongoing reporting work and likely some administrative or IT cost for hospitals and EMS agencies, while the department will need staff and resources to build the registry, set care standards, categorize centers, analyze results, and provide technical assistance and education. The department must use the data to drive quality improvement and will publish an annual statewide progress report starting July 1, 2028 (including a 2028 evaluation of whether hospitals need on-site verification), and it can adopt rules and make data-sharing agreements. Rural and critical access hospitals and prehospital services may receive targeted help or equipment and training, but those supports are limited to whatever funds the legislature specifically provides, and important details about what data must be submitted, exact funding levels, and the recodified statute text are not included here.