(a)  No transfer of a patient already in a facility shall be made to a facility, or section of a facility, maintained for patients certified upon an order of a court or judge having criminal jurisdiction in a proceeding arising out of a criminal offense. The official in charge of a facility, or the official’s designated agent, shall have reasonable discretion to order or permit transfers within a facility for reason of finances, adequacy of personnel, and upon conditions set forth in rules or regulations promulgated by the director pursuant hereto.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-32

  • Care and treatment: means psychiatric care, together with such medical, nursing, psychological, social, rehabilitative, and maintenance services as may be required by a patient in association with the psychiatric care provided pursuant to an individualized treatment plan recorded in the patient's medical record. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-2
  • Director: means the director of the state department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-2
  • Facility: means any public or private hospital licensed by the Rhode Island department of health that maintains staff and facilities, including inpatient units, for the care and treatment of persons with psychiatric illness, psychiatric disorders, and/or psychiatric disabilities; and in order to operate pursuant to the Mental Health Act as codified in this chapter, such facility and/or inpatient unit must be approved by the director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals upon application of such facility and/or inpatient unit, and any of the several community mental health services established pursuant to chapter 8. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-2
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • 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 a person admitted voluntarily, certified or re-certified admitted to a facility according to the provisions of this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-2
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
  • Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
  • Psychiatric disability: means a mental disorder in which the capacity of a person to exercise self-control or judgment in the conduct of the person's affairs and social relations, or to care for the person's own personal needs, is significantly impaired. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-5-2
  • United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8

(b)  A patient certified to any facility pursuant to the provisions of this chapter may be transferred, with the patient’s consent or that of the patient’s guardian, to any facility within or without the state or to an institution operated by the Veterans’ Administration or to any agency of the United States government for the treatment of psychiatric disability at a facility under its jurisdiction, within or without the state, when deemed in the interest of the patient and approved by the transferring and receiving facilities. A transfer as above described may be accomplished without the consent of a patient, or the patient’s guardian, only upon prior application to, and a hearing in, the district court (or family court in the case of a patient under eighteen (18) years of age) and a specific finding by the court that the proposed transfer is in the best interests of the patient and is to a facility that will afford the patient the care and treatment necessary and appropriate to the patient’s condition.

(c)  A patient received on voluntary admission may be transferred as provided in subsection (b) with the patient’s consent; and if the patient shall not yet have attained the patient’s eighteenth birthday, with the consent of the patient’s parent, guardian, next of kin, or person who signed for his or her admission. A voluntary patient may be transferred to another facility without the patient’s consent only upon the filing of a petition for certification to the facility, and a finding of probable cause at a preliminary hearing in accordance with § 40.1-5-8.

(d)  Patients transferred to facilities without the state, or to the Veterans’ Administration or the United States Public Health Service, or another agency operated by the United States government, shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the facility or institution to which they are transferred, and the person or official in charge thereof, in connection with the care and treatment of the patient, being vested with the same powers as persons in charge of similar facilities within the state, provided that no such transfer shall be made to a facility maintained for the purpose of patients committed upon an order of a court or judge having criminal jurisdiction in a proceeding arising out of a criminal offense. Transfers of patients between states that have entered into the interstate compact on mental health shall be pursuant to and in accordance with said compact whenever applicable.

History of Section.
P.L. 1966, ch. 100, § 1; P.L. 1968, ch. 168, § 6; G.L. 1956, § 40-20-15; Reorg. Plan No. 1, 1970; G.L. 1956, § 40.1-5-15; P.L. 1974, ch. 119, § 1; P.L. 1976, ch. 215, § 1; P.L. 1983, ch. 30, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 80, § 1; P.L. 2022, ch. 231, art. 11, § 7, effective June 27, 2022.