STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          9670

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 4, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. GUNTHER -- read once and referred to the Commit-
          tee on Mental Health

        AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to  providing  inci-
          dent reports to qualified persons

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Subdivision (a) of section 33.23 of the mental hygiene law,
     2  as added by chapter 24 of the laws  of  2007,  is  amended  to  read  as
     3  follows:
     4    (a)  The  director  of  a  facility,  as defined in subdivision six of
     5  section 1.03 of this chapter, shall provide telephone notice of an inci-
     6  dent involving a patient receiving care and treatment at  such  facility
     7  to a qualified person, as defined in paragraph six of subdivision (a) of
     8  section  33.16  of  this  article.  Such notice shall be provided within
     9  twenty-four hours of the  initial  report  of  such  incident.  For  the
    10  purposes  of  this  section, "incident" shall mean an accident or injury
    11  that affects the health or safety of a patient. Upon the  request  of  a
    12  qualified  person, the director shall [promptly] within ten days of such
    13  request, provide to [him or her] the qualified  person  a  copy  of  the
    14  written  incident  report,  provided that the names and other personally
    15  identifying information of patients and employees shall not be  included
    16  unless  such  patients and employees authorize disclosure[. The director
    17  of the facility shall also], offer to hold a meeting with such qualified
    18  person to further discuss the incident[. In addition, within  ten  days,
    19  the  director  of the facility shall], and provide such qualified person
    20  with a written report on the actions taken to address the incident.  The
    21  director  may offer to provide all reports to the qualified person elec-
    22  tronically.
    23    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.


         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD14973-01-0