26B-2-203.  Services required — General acute hospitals — Specialty Hospitals.

(1)  General acute hospitals and specialty hospitals shall remain open and be continuously ready to receive patients 24 hours of every day in a year and have an attending medical staff consisting of one or more physicians licensed to practice medicine and surgery under Title 58, Chapter 67, Utah Medical Practice Act, or Title 58, Chapter 68, Utah Osteopathic Medical Practice Act.

Terms Used In Utah Code 26B-2-203

  • General acute hospital: means a facility which provides diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative services to both inpatients and outpatients by or under the supervision of physicians. See Utah Code 26B-2-201
  • Home health agency: means an agency, organization, or facility or a subdivision of an agency, organization, or facility which employs two or more direct care staff persons who provide licensed nursing services, therapeutic services of physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical social services, or home health aide services on a visiting basis. See Utah Code 26B-2-201
  • Hospice: means a program of care for the terminally ill and their families which occurs in a home or in a health care facility and which provides medical, palliative, psychological, spiritual, and supportive care and treatment. See Utah Code 26B-2-201
  • Specialty hospital: means a facility which provides specialized diagnostic, therapeutic, or rehabilitative services in the recognized specialty or specialties for which the hospital is licensed. See Utah Code 26B-2-201
(2)  A specialty hospital shall provide on-site all basic services required of a general acute hospital that are needed for the diagnosis, therapy, or rehabilitation offered to or required by patients admitted to or cared for in the facility.

(3) 

(a)  A home health agency shall provide at least licensed nursing services or therapeutic services directly through the agency employees.

(b)  A home health agency may provide additional services itself or under arrangements with another agency, organization, facility, or individual.

(4)  Beginning January 1, 2023, a hospice program shall provide at least one qualified medical provider, as that term is defined in Section 26B-4-201, for the treatment of hospice patients.

Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 305, 2023 General Session