Ohio Code 5122.26 – Patient absent without leave
(A) If a patient is absent without leave, on a verbal or written order issued within five days of the time of the unauthorized absence by the department of mental health and addiction services, the chief clinical officer of the hospital from which the patient is absent without leave, or the court of either the county from which the patient was committed or in which the patient is found, any health or police officer or sheriff may take the patient into custody and transport the patient to the hospital in which the patient was hospitalized or to a place that is designated in the order. The officer immediately shall report such fact to the entity that issued the order.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 5122.26
- Chief clinical officer: means the medical director of a hospital, community mental health services provider, or board of alcohol, drug addiction, and mental health services, or, if there is no medical director, the licensed physician responsible for the treatment provided by a hospital or community mental health services provider. See Ohio Code 5122.01
- Court: means the probate division of the court of common pleas. See Ohio Code 5122.01
- Hospital: means a hospital or inpatient unit licensed by the department of mental health and addiction services under section 5119. See Ohio Code 5122.01
- imprisonment: means being imprisoned under a sentence imposed for an offense or serving a term of imprisonment, prison term, jail term, term of local incarceration, or other term under a sentence imposed for an offense in an institution under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction, a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, a minimum security jail, a community-based correctional facility, or another facility described or referred to in section 2929. See Ohio Code 1.05
- Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
- 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.
- Patient: means , subject to division (C)(2) of this section, a person who is admitted either voluntarily or involuntarily to a hospital or other place under section 2945. See Ohio Code 5122.01
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
The chief clinical officer of a hospital may discharge a patient who is under an indictment, a sentence of imprisonment, a community control sanction, or a post-release control sanction or on parole and who has been absent without leave for more than thirty days but shall give written notice of the discharge to the court with criminal jurisdiction over the patient. The chief clinical officer of a hospital may discharge any other patient who has been absent without leave for more than fourteen days.
The chief clinical officer shall take all proper measures for the apprehension of an escaped patient. The expense of the return of an escaped patient shall be borne by the hospital where the patient is hospitalized.
(B)(1) Subject to division (B)(2) of this section, no patient hospitalized under Chapter 5122 of the Revised Code whose absence without leave was caused or contributed to by the patient’s mental illness shall be subject to a charge of escape.
(2) Division (B)(1) of this section does not apply to any person who was hospitalized, institutionalized, or confined in a facility under an order made pursuant to or under authority of section 2945.37, 2945.371, 2945.38, 2945.39, 2945.40, 2945.401, or 2945.402 of the Revised Code and who escapes from the facility, from confinement in a vehicle for transportation to or from the facility, or from supervision by an employee of the facility that is incidental to hospitalization, institutionalization, or confinement in the facility and that occurs outside the facility, in violation of section 2921.34 of the Revised Code.