By: Armbrister S.B. No. 78
73R4679 CBH-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the authority of the Texas Department of Mental Health
1-3 and Mental Retardation to designate a skilled nursing facility to
1-4 provide court-ordered mental health services.
1-5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-6 SECTION 1. Section 571.003(9), Health and Safety Code, is
1-7 amended to read as follows:
1-8 (9) "Inpatient mental health facility" means a mental
1-9 health facility that can provide 24-hour residential and
1-10 psychiatric services and that is:
1-11 (A) a facility operated by the department;
1-12 (B) a private mental hospital licensed by the
1-13 department;
1-14 (C) a community center;
1-15 (D) a facility operated by a community center or
1-16 other entity the department designates to provide mental health
1-17 services, including a skilled nursing facility;
1-18 (E) an identifiable part of a general hospital
1-19 in which diagnosis, treatment, and care for persons with mental
1-20 illness is provided and that is licensed by the department or the
1-21 Texas Department of Health; or
1-22 (F) a hospital operated by a federal agency.
1-23 SECTION 2. Subchapter A, Chapter 571, Health and Safety
1-24 Code, is amended by adding Section 571.0045 to read as follows:
2-1 Sec. 571.0045. PROVISION OF COURT-ORDERED MENTAL HEALTH
2-2 SERVICES IN SKILLED NURSING FACILITY. (a) The department may
2-3 designate a skilled nursing facility to provide court-ordered
2-4 mental health services to one or more patients who have severe
2-5 mental impairments.
2-6 (b) A patient may be admitted or transferred to a designated
2-7 facility only if the department determines that the patient can be
2-8 adequately cared for in a skilled nursing facility rather than in a
2-9 mental hospital.
2-10 (c) In transferring patients from a state mental hospital to
2-11 a skilled nursing facility, the department shall give priority to a
2-12 patient who cannot be treated in the community and whose only
2-13 choice for treatment other than a skilled nursing facility is an
2-14 acute care or state mental hospital.
2-15 (d) The department by rule shall prescribe the conditions
2-16 and procedures under which a patient may be admitted or transferred
2-17 to a designated facility. The rules must specifically address
2-18 ways to protect the welfare of the patient and the efficiency of
2-19 appropriate admission and transfer procedures.
2-20 (e) A skilled nursing facility designated to provide
2-21 court-ordered mental health services must be licensed under Chapter
2-22 577.
2-23 SECTION 3. Subchapter B, Chapter 575, Health and Safety
2-24 Code, is amended by adding Section 575.018 to read as follows:
2-25 Sec. 575.018. TRANSFER TO DESIGNATED SKILLED NURSING
2-26 FACILITY. (a) The department may transfer a patient, if the
2-27 transfer is considered advisable, from a state mental hospital to a
3-1 skilled nursing facility designated by the department to provide
3-2 court-ordered mental health services.
3-3 (b) The department shall provide to the committing court
3-4 written notice of the transfer before transferring a patient under
3-5 this section.
3-6 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
3-7 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.