California Health and Safety Code 1259.5 – By January 1, 1995, each general acute care hospital, acute …
By January 1, 1995, each general acute care hospital, acute psychiatric hospital, special hospital, psychiatric health facility, and chemical dependency recovery hospital shall establish written policies and procedures to screen patients routinely for the purpose of detecting spousal or partner abuse. The policies shall include guidelines on all of the following:
(a) Identifying, through routine screening, spousal or partner abuse among patients.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 1259.5
- Acute psychiatric hospital: means a health facility having a duly constituted governing body with overall administrative and professional responsibility and an organized medical staff that provides 24-hour inpatient care for persons with mental health disorders or other patients referred to in Division 5 (commencing with Section 5000) or Division 6 (commencing with Section 6000) of the Welfare and Institutions Code, including the following basic services: medical, nursing, rehabilitative, pharmacy, and dietary services. See California Health and Safety Code 1250
- general acute care hospital: includes a "rural general acute care hospital. See California Health and Safety Code 1250
- 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
- Special hospital: means a health facility having a duly constituted governing body with overall administrative and professional responsibility and an organized medical or dental staff that provides inpatient or outpatient care in dentistry or maternity. See California Health and Safety Code 1250
(b) Documenting patient injuries or illnesses attributable to spousal or partner abuse.
(c) Educating appropriate hospital staff about the criteria for identifying, and the procedures for handling, patients whose injuries or illnesses are attributable to spousal or partner abuse.
(d) Advising patients exhibiting signs of spousal or partner abuse of crisis intervention services that are available either through the hospital facility or through community-based crisis intervention and counseling services.
(e) Providing to patients who exhibit signs of spousal or partner abuse information on domestic violence and a referral list, to be updated periodically, of private and public community agencies that provide, or arrange for, evaluation of and care for persons experiencing spousal or partner abuse, including, but not limited to, hot lines, local domestic violence shelter-based programs, legal services, and information about temporary restraining orders.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 197, Sec. 10. (SB 1493) Effective January 1, 2023.)