Senate Bill No. 655
(By Senator White)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Health and Human Resources; and then to the
Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article one-a, chapter twenty-seven of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
thirteen, relating to requiring that a state hospital may
not admit patients for particular types of care or treatment
unless the hospital operates and maintains a specialized
unit dedicated to the purpose of caring for that particular
type of patient.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article one-a, chapter twenty-seven of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
thirteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1A. BUREAU OF PUBLIC HEALTH.
§27-1A-13. Restrictions as to admission of certain types of
patients at state hospitals or mental health
facilities.
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the
contrary, no state hospital or mental health facility may admit
or accept any person for the treatment, care or rehabilitation of
alcoholism, addiction or substance abuse unless the hospital or
mental health facility operates and maintains a specialized and
discrete unit specifically dedicated to the treatment, care and
rehabilitation of alcoholism, addiction or substance abuse and
any person so admitted or accepted shall be placed in that
specialized and discrete unit and shall not be placed among other
populations at the facility.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the
contrary, no state hospital or mental health facility may admit
or accept any person for the treatment, care or rehabilitation of
mental retardation unless the hospital or mental health facility
operates and maintains a specialized and discrete unit
specifically dedicated to the treatment, care and rehabilitation
of mental retardation and any person so admitted or accepted
shall be placed in that specialized and discrete unit and shall
not be placed among other populations at the facility.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that a state
hospital or mental health facility must have a specialized type
of unit dedicated to the care, treatment or rehabilitation of
alcoholism, addiction or substance abuse in order to accept
patients for such treatment, etc. and that such facilities must
have a specialized unit for mental retardation to accept patients
of that type. It also prohibits mixing these types of patients
with other populations in the facility.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.