California Health and Safety Code 1279.8 – (a) Every health facility, as defined in subdivision (c), (d), …
(a) Every health facility, as defined in subdivision (c), (d), (e), (g), (h), (i), or (m) of Section 1250, shall, for the purpose of addressing issues that arise when a patient is missing from the facility, develop and comply with an absentee notification plan as part of the written plans and procedures that are required pursuant to federal or state law. The plan shall include and be limited to the following: a requirement that an administrator of the facility, or his or her designee, inform the patient’s authorized representative when that patient is missing from the facility and the circumstances in which an administrator of the facility, or his or her designee, shall notify local law enforcement when a patient is missing from the facility.
(b) This section shall not apply to state hospitals under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals when the executive director of the state hospital, or his or her designee, determines that informing the patient’s authorized representative that a patient is missing will create a risk to the safety and security of the state hospital.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 1279.8
- department: means State Department of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 20
- Director: means "State Director of Health Services. See California Health and Safety Code 21
- health facility: means a facility, place, or building that is organized, maintained, and operated for the diagnosis, care, prevention, and treatment of human illness, physical or mental, including convalescence and rehabilitation and including care during and after pregnancy, or for any one or more of these purposes, for one or more persons, to which the persons are admitted for a 24-hour stay or longer, and includes the following types:
California Health and Safety Code 1250
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23
(Added by Stats. 2013, Ch. 674, Sec. 1. (AB 620) Effective January 1, 2014.)