PHILADELPHIA — Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday signed legislation aimed at making health care more accessible and less expensive for Pennsylvanians, calling it a good first step but warning that more work is needed to achieve full-fledged reform.

One law is aimed at eliminating hospital-acquired and antibiotic-resistant infections. The other expands the scope of duties that can be performed by some medical professionals, including nurse practitioners, midwives and dental hygienists.

The initiatives are part of the governor's broader "Prescription for Pennsylvania" agenda, which intends to reduce health care costs and improve the quality of care.

"These are the kinds of common sense programs that improve and save people's lives and save money," Rendell said in a statement. "It's a good start but there is more to do."

Certain nurses in Pennsylvania are now permitted to perform some duties only doctors had been allowed to do, such as ordering medical equipment, home health and hospice care; making therapy and dietitian referrals; and issuing homebound schooling certifications. The expanded responsibilities apply only to nurse practitioners — registered nurses with specialized training and advanced degrees.

The law also permits dental hygienists to clean teeth without a dentist's supervision in facilities including schools and nursing homes. It also ends Pennsylvania's distinction as the only state in the nation barring nurse midwives from prescribing drugs.

Tine Hansen-Turton, head of the Philadelphia-based National Nursing Centers Consortium, said that nurses, doctors, the state Legislature, and Rendell collaborated with a common goal: access to care.

"Nurse practitioners are the cure for an ailing U.S. health system faced with a growing number of patients and a looming shortage of general doctors, especially ones willing to treat poor patients," she said.

The second measure signed into law Friday requires hospitals, outpatient surgery centers and nursing homes to develop infection control systems that meet state Health Department standards and report all hospital-acquired infections to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Financial reimbursements will be awarded to facilities that reduce infections by 10 percent from the previous year.