ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 553
(By Senators Wooton, Ball, Dittmar, Fanning, Hunter, Ross,
Schoonover, Snyder, White, Buckalew, Deem and Kimble)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported April 2, 1997.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article five-b, chapter
sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
section nine, article one, chapter twenty-seven of said code,
all relating generally to the definition of the terms
"hospital" and "mental health facilities"; and clarifying that
regional jail facilities and correctional centers are not
hospitals or mental health facilities.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article five-b, chapter sixteen of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that section nine, article one,
chapter twenty-seven of said code, be amended and reenacted; all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 16. PUBLIC HEALTH.
ARTICLE 5B. HOSPITALS AND SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS.
§16-5B-1. Health facilities and certain other facilities operated
in connection therewith to obtain license; exemptions;
meaning of hospital, etc.
No person, partnership, association, corporation, or any local
governmental unit or any division, department, board or agency
thereof shall establish, conduct or maintain in the state of West
Virginia any ambulatory health care facility, ambulatory surgical
facility, freestanding or operated in connection with a hospital,
hospital or extended care facility operated in connection with a
hospital, without first obtaining a license therefor in the manner
hereinafter provided: Provided, That only one license shall be
required for any person, partnership, association, corporation or
any local governmental unit or any division, department, board or
agency thereof who operates any combination of an ambulatory health
care facility, ambulatory surgical facility, hospital, extended
care facility operated in connection with a hospital, or more than
one thereof, at the same location. Ambulatory health care
facilities, ambulatory surgical facilities, hospitals or extended
care facilities operated in connection with a hospital operated by
the federal government or the state government shall be exempt from
the provisions of this article.
A hospital or extended care facility operated in connection
with a hospital, within the meaning of this article, shall mean any
institution, place, building or agency in which an accommodation of
five or more beds is maintained, furnished or offered for the
hospitalization of the sick or injured: Provided, That nothing
contained in this article shall apply to nursing homes, rest homes,
personal care facilities, homes for the aged, extended care
facilities not operated in connection with a hospital, boarding
homes, homes for the infirm or chronically ill, convalescent homes,
hotels or other similar places that furnish to their guests only
board and room, or either of them, or correctional centers or
regional jail facilities: Provided, however, That the
hospitalization, care or treatment in a household, whether for
compensation or not, of any person related by blood or marriage,
within the degree of consanguinity of second cousin to the head of
the household, or his or her spouse, shall not be deemed to
constitute the premises a hospital or extended care facility
operated in connection with a hospital, within the meaning of this
article.
An "ambulatory health care facility" shall include any
facility which provides health care or mental health care to
noninstitutionalized persons on an outpatient basis. This
definition does not include the legally authorized practice of
medicine by any one or more persons in the private office of any health care provider.
"Ambulatory surgical facility" means a facility which provides
surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization.
This definition does not include the legally authorized practice of
surgery by any one or more persons in the private office of any
health care provider.
Nothing in this article or the rules and regulations adopted
pursuant to the provisions of this article shall be construed to
authorize the licensure, supervision, regulation or control in any
manner of: (1) Private offices of physicians, dentists or other
practitioners of the healing arts; and (2) dispensaries and first
aid stations located within business or industrial establishments
maintained solely for the use of employees: Provided, That such
facility does not contain inpatient or resident beds for patients
or employees who generally remain in the facility for more than
twenty-four hours.
Nothing in this article shall authorize any person,
partnership, association, corporation, or any local governmental
unit or any division, department, board or agency thereof to engage
in any manner in the practice of medicine, as defined by law.
This article shall not be construed to restrict or modify any
statute pertaining to the placement or adoption of children.
CHAPTER 27. MENTALLY ILL PERSONS.
ARTICLE 1. WORDS AND PHRASES DEFINED.
§27-1-9. Mental health facility.
"Mental health facility" means any inpatient, residential or
outpatient facility for the care and treatment of the mentally ill,
mentally retarded or addicted which is operated, or licensed to
operate, by the department of health and shall include state
hospitals as defined in section six of this article. The term
shall also include veterans administration hospitals. The term
shall not include correctional centers or regional jail facilities.