---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2018"
identifier: "SB 2238"
citation: "Rhode Island SB 2238 (2018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health & Safety", "Medical"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Calkin", "Coyne", "DiPalma", "Miller", "Seveney"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2018-02-01"
last_action: "2018-06-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e111f81c-6533-49d4-9645-a6747eb7eda9"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "b3f3399491ceb730720483b1d99f5175f227598b973f5fbc0b3e8f803fde8864"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island SB 2238 (2018) — AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH AND SAFETY - LICENSING OF HEALTH CARE FACILITIES (Requires all hospitals and freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities to adopt policies to use a smoke evacuation system for surgical procedures that generate surgical smoke.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **2238** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText18/SenateText18/S2238.pdf)

## Votes

- Passage — **33–0** (pass) · upper
- IN CONCURRENCE — **70–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Calkin — primary (person)
- Coyne — primary (person)
- DiPalma — primary (person)
- Miller — primary (person)
- Seveney — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-02-01** 02/01/2018 Introduced, referred to Senate Health and Human Services `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-02-23** 02/23/2018 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/01/2018)
- **2018-03-01** 03/01/2018 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2018-03-23** 03/23/2018 Scheduled for consideration (03/27/2018)
- **2018-03-27** 03/27/2018 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-28** 03/28/2018 Placed on Senate Calendar (04/03/2018)
- **2018-04-03** 04/03/2018 Senate read and passed `passage`
- **2018-04-04** 04/04/2018 Referred to House H.E.W. `referral-committee`
- **2018-05-18** 05/18/2018 Scheduled for consideration (05/23/2018)
- **2018-05-23** 05/23/2018 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-05-25** 05/25/2018 Placed on House Calendar (05/30/2018)
- **2018-05-30** 05/30/2018 House passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2018-05-30** 05/30/2018 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-06-04** 06/04/2018 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e111f81c-6533-49d4-9645-a6747eb7eda9`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).