79R8794 HLT-F

By:  Delisi                                                       H.B. No. 2471



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to authorizing the Department of State Health Services to 
issue a single license for multiple hospitals.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 241.023, Health and Safety Code, is 
amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (c-1) to 
read as follows:
	(c)  Except as provided by Subsection (c-1), the [The] 
department may issue a license only for the premises of a hospital 
and person or governmental unit named in the application.
	(c-1)  The department may issue one license for multiple 
hospitals if:
		(1)  all buildings in which inpatients receive hospital 
services and inpatient services of each of the hospitals to be 
included in the license are subject to the control and direction of 
the same governing body;
		(2)  all buildings in which inpatients receive hospital 
services are within a 30-mile radius of the main address of the 
applicant;
		(3)  there is integration of the organized medical 
staff of each of the hospitals to be included in the license;
		(4)  there is a single chief executive officer for all 
of the hospitals who reports directly to the governing body and 
through whom all administrative authority flows and who exercises 
control and surveillance over all administrative activities of the 
hospital;
		(5)  each hospital to be included in the license has a 
single chief medical officer who reports directly to the governing 
body and who is responsible for all medical staff activities of the 
hospital;
		(6)  each building of a hospital to be included in the 
license that is geographically separate from other buildings of the 
same hospital contains at least one nursing unit for inpatients, 
unless providing only diagnostic or laboratory services, or a 
combination of diagnostic or laboratory services, in the building 
for hospital inpatients; and
		(7)  each hospital that is to be included in the license 
is in compliance with any emergency services regulations issued by 
the department unless it is a hospital located not more than three 
miles away from another hospital that:
			(A)  is to be included in the same license; and                       
			(B)  maintains an emergency department.                               
	SECTION 2.  Section 241.003(14), Health and Safety Code, is 
repealed.        
	SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies only 
to an application for a license submitted on or after the effective 
date of this Act.  An application for a license submitted before the 
effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect on the 
date the application was submitted, and the former law is continued 
in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.