Bill Text: CA AB918 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Seclusion and restraint: developmental services: health facilities.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-09-28 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 340, Statutes of 2015. [AB918 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB918-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 918	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mark Stone

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to amend Section 1180.3 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health and care facilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 918, as introduced, Mark Stone. Health and care facilities:
seclusion and behavioral restraints.
   Existing law requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to develop technical assistance and training programs to support the
efforts of community care facilities, group homes, skilled nursing
facilities, intermediate care facilities, and mental health
rehabilitation centers, among others, to reduce or eliminate the use
of seclusion and behavioral restraints in these facilities. Existing
law requires the secretary to take steps to establish a system of
mandatory, consistent, timely, and publicly accessible data
collection regarding the use of seclusion and behavioral restraints
in all facilities.
   The bill would require these facilities to report to the
protection and advocacy agency designated by the Governor each death
or serious injury of a person occurring during, or related to, the
use of seclusion or behavioral restraints.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1180.3 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
   1180.3.  (a)  This section shall apply to psychiatric units of
general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals,
psychiatric health facilities, crisis stabilization units, community
treatment facilities, group homes, skilled nursing facilities,
intermediate care facilities, community care facilities, and mental
health rehabilitation centers.
   (b)  (1)  The secretary or his or her designee shall develop
technical assistance and training programs to support the efforts of
facilities to reduce or eliminate the use of seclusion and behavioral
restraints in those facilities that utilize them.
   (2)  Technical assistance and training programs should be designed
with the input of stakeholders, including clients and direct care
staff, and should be based on best practices that lead to the
avoidance of the use of seclusion and behavioral restraints. In order
to avoid redundancies and to promote consistency across various
types of facilities, it is the intent of the Legislature that the
technical assistance and training program, to the extent possible, be
based on that developed pursuant to Section 1180.2.
   (c)  (1)  The secretary or his or her designee shall take steps to
establish a system of mandatory, consistent, timely, and publicly
accessible data collection regarding the use of seclusion and
behavioral restraints in all facilities described in subdivision (a)
that utilize seclusion and behavioral restraints. In determining a
system of data collection, the secretary should utilize existing
efforts, and direct new or ongoing efforts, of associated state
departments to revise or improve their data collection systems. The
secretary or his or her designee shall make recommendations for a
mechanism to ensure compliance by facilities, including, but not
limited to, penalties for failure to report in a timely manner. It is
the intent of the Legislature that data be compiled in a manner that
allows for standard statistical comparison and be maintained for
each facility subject to reporting requirements for the use of
seclusion and behavioral restraints.
   (2)  The secretary shall develop a mechanism for making this
information, as it becomes available, publicly available on the
Internet. For data currently being collected, this paragraph shall be
implemented as soon as it reasonably can be achieved within existing
resources. As new reporting requirements are developed and result in
additional data becoming available, this additional data shall be
included in the data publicly available on the Internet pursuant to
this paragraph.
   (3)  At the direction of the secretary, the departments shall
cooperate and share resources for developing uniform reporting for
all facilities. Uniform reporting of seclusion and behavioral
restraint utilization information shall, to the extent possible, be
incorporated into existing reporting requirements for facilities
described in subdivision (a).
   (4)  Data collected pursuant to this subdivision shall include all
of the data described in paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section
1180.2.
   (5)  The secretary or his or her designee shall work with the
state departments that have responsibility for oversight of the use
of seclusion and behavioral restraints to review and eliminate
redundancies and outdated requirements in the reporting of data on
the use of seclusion and behavioral restraints in order to ensure
cost-effectiveness.
   (d)  Neither the agency nor any department shall be required to
implement this section if implementation cannot be achieved within
existing resources, unless additional funding for this purpose
becomes available. The agency and involved departments may
incrementally implement this section in order to accomplish its goals
within existing resources, through the use of federal or private
funding, or upon the subsequent appropriation of funds by the
Legislature for this purpose, or all of these. 
   (e) A facility described in subdivision (a) shall report each
death or serious injury of a person occurring during, or related to,
the use of seclusion or behavioral restraints. This report shall be
made to the agency designated in subdivision (i) of Section 4900 of
the Welfare and Institutions Code no later than the close of the
business day following the death or injury. The report shall include
the encrypted identifier of the person involved, and the name, street
address, and telephone number of the facility.