COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 348
(By Senators Chafin and Walker)
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[Originating in the Committee on Health and
Human Resources; reported February 22, 1995.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section five, article five-c, chapter
sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring the
alphabetic rating assigned to a nursing, personal care or
residential care home by the board of health be posted on the
entrance of the facility and disclosed in any contract or
agreement made with patients or members of their families or
in any promotional or informational brochure or other
literature.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article five-c, chapter sixteen of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5C. NURSING AND PERSONAL CARE HOME AND RESIDENTIAL BOARD
AND CARE HOMES.
§16-5C-5. Rules; minimum standards for facilities; rating of
facilities.
(a) All rules shall be approved by the board of health and
promulgated in the manner provided by the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code. The board of health
shall adopt, amend or repeal any rules as may be necessary or
proper to carry out the purposes and intent of this article and to
enable the director to exercise the powers and perform the duties
conferred upon the director by this article.
(b) The board of health shall promulgate rules establishing
minimum standards of operation of facilities including, but not
limited to, the following:
(1) Administrative policies, including: (i) An affirmative
statement of the right of access to facilities by members of
recognized community organizations and community legal services
programs whose purposes include rendering assistance without charge
to patients, consistent with the right of patients to privacy; and
(ii) a statement of the rights and responsibilities of patients in
facilities which prescribe, as a minimum, such a statement of
patients' rights as included in the United States department of
health, education and welfare regulations, in force on the
effective date of this article, governing participation of
intermediate care facilities in the medicare and medicaid programs
pursuant to titles eighteen and nineteen of the Social Security
Act;
(2) Minimum numbers and qualifications of personnel, including
management, medical and nursing, aides, orderlies and support
personnel, according to the size and classification of the facility;
(3) Safety requirements;
(4) Sanitation requirements;
(5) Protective and personal services to be provided;
(6) Dietary services to be provided;
(7) Maintenance of health records;
(8) Social and recreational activities to be made available;
and
(9) Such other categories as the board of health determines to
be appropriate to ensure patient's health, safety and welfare.
(c) The board of health shall include in its rules detailed
standards for each of the categories of standards established
pursuant to subsections (b) and (d) of this section, and shall
classify such standards as follows: Class I standards are
standards the violation of which would present either an imminent
danger to the health, safety or welfare of any patient or a
substantial probability that death or serious physical harm would
result; Class II standards are standards which have a direct or
immediate relationship to the health, safety or welfare of any
patient, but which do not create imminent danger; Class III
standards are standards which have an indirect or a potential
impact on the health, safety or welfare of any patient.
(d) The board of health shall establish:
(1) Standards grouped into broad general categories including,
but not limited to, nursing services, dietetic services, medical
services, the physical facility and patient rights. Standards within each category shall be assigned a numerical value based on
its classification according to subsection (c) of this section to
represent full compliance with the standard. The board of health
shall also determine numerical values for a standard to represent
an acceptable level or levels of partial but substantial compliance
with the standard, if applicable.
(2) A range of values for each category based on the values
for individual standards to represent full compliance and various
levels of acceptable partial but substantial compliance with the
category. A facility must attain an acceptable substantial level
of compliance for each and every individual category to be deemed
in substantial compliance with this article and the rules
promulgated hereunder.
(3) Standards for which extra numerical credit may be earned.
Such extra credit shall not be used to counterbalance unacceptable
levels of compliance with other standards, but may be used to raise
a score where the facility is already in partial compliance.
(e) Not later than the first day of March, one thousand nine
hundred eighty-nine, the board of health shall establish a system
of rating facilities, as part of the licensing procedure, in
accordance with the criteria established pursuant to this section.
Such system shall include four rating categories entitled, from the
highest to lowest, "A", "B", "C" and "F". A rating of "F" shall be
assigned to those facilities whose performance is not in
substantial compliance with this article and rules promulgated
hereunder and shall be the basis for issuance of a provisional license pursuant to subsection (d), section six of this article or
the limitation, suspension, revocation or denial of a license. The
rating assigned to each facility shall be on the basis of its
immediately prior inspection and shall be deemed a part of the
results and findings of that inspection and shall be included on
the license issued to the facility pursuant to said section. The
rating shall be posted at the entrance to each facility; disclosed
in any contract or agreement with any patient or their family; and
published in any promotional or informational brochure or other
literature distributed by or on behalf of any facility.