republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/sb-1561.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Emergency Department Care Coordination Program; established."
description: "Establishes the Emergency Department Care Coordination Program in the Department of Health to provide a single, statewide technology solution that connects all hospital emergency departments in the Commonwealth to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration between physicians, other health care providers, and other clinical and care management personnel for patients receiving services in hospital emergency departments, for the purpose of improving the quality of patient care services. The bill does not become effective unless and until the Commonwealth receives federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act funds to implement its provisions. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1561"
citation: "Virginia SB 1561 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Administration of Government", "Health"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Siobhan S. Dunnavant"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 28
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-01-20"
last_action: "2017-03-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3e057bcb-5d81-4574-a258-cc6934a8d0b8"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1561"
source_hash: "87eb6682b73d88896873722bb5b8601e2d34e7ff429fc081ddc632bbe463f180"
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-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1561 (2017) — Emergency Department Care Coordination Program; established.

Establishes the Emergency Department Care Coordination Program in the Department of Health to provide a single, statewide technology solution that connects all hospital emergency departments in the Commonwealth to facilitate real-time communication and collaboration between physicians, other health care providers, and other clinical and care management personnel for patients receiving services in hospital emergency departments, for the purpose of improving the quality of patient care services. The bill does not become effective unless and until the Commonwealth receives federal Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act funds to implement its provisions. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0475)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0475)
2. **House: Committee substitute printed 17105421D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1561H1)
3. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1561ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1561ER)
4. **Senate: Committee substitute printed 17105126D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1561S1)
5. **Senate: Presented and ordered printed 17103799D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1561)
6. **Senate: Printed as engrossed 17105126D-ES1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1561ES1)

## Votes

- Reported from Appropriations with substitute — **21–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Finance with amendment — **16–0** (pass) · legislature
- House substitute agreed to by Senate — **37–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **38–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Education and Health with substitute — **14–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Siobhan S. Dunnavant — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-01-20** Presented and ordered printed 17103799D `introduction`
- **2017-01-20** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-30** Assigned Education sub: Health Professions `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-02** Rereferred to Finance `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-06** Reading of substitute waived
- **2017-02-06** Committee substitute agreed to 17105126D-S1
- **2017-02-06** Reading of amendment waived
- **2017-02-06** Committee amendment agreed to
- **2017-02-06** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute with amendment SB1561ES1
- **2017-02-06** Printed as engrossed 17105126D-ES1
- **2017-02-08** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-08** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-08** Assigned App. sub: Health & Human Resources `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Committee substitute agreed to 17105421D-H1
- **2017-02-15** Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB1561H1
- **2017-02-15** Passed House with substitute BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-17** Passed by temporarily
- **2017-02-17** Title replaced 17105421D-H1
- **2017-02-22** Enrolled
- **2017-02-22** Signed by President
- **2017-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-23** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/23/17
- **2017-02-23** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-13** Approved by Governor-Chapter 475 (effective - see bill) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3e057bcb-5d81-4574-a258-cc6934a8d0b8`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).