Bill Text: CA AB1394 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: General acute care hospitals: suicide screening.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Passed) 2022-07-19 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 101, Statutes of 2022. [AB1394 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB1394-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 1394
CHAPTER 101
An act to add Section 1259.6 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities.
[
Approved by
Governor
July 19, 2022.
Filed with
Secretary of State
July 19, 2022.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1394, Irwin.
General acute care hospitals: suicide screening.
Existing law licenses and regulates general acute care hospitals as a type of 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 that includes medical, nursing, surgical, anesthesia, laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, and dietary services. Existing law establishes the Office of Suicide Prevention upon appropriation of funds for those purposes.
This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2025, a general acute care hospital to establish and adopt written policies and procedures to screen patients who are 12 years of age and older for purposes of detecting a risk for suicidal ideation and behavior. The bill would require the procedures to include, among other things, a designation of the licensed staff who are
responsible for the implementation of the policies and procedures. The bill would further require a general acute care hospital to routinely screen patients who are 12 years of age and older for a risk of suicidal ideation and behavior in compliance with the policies and procedures.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 1259.6 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:1259.6.
(a) On or before January 1, 2025, a general acute care hospital shall establish and adopt written policies and procedures to screen patients who are 12 years of age and older for purposes of detecting a risk for suicidal ideation and behavior.(b) The procedures established pursuant to this section shall accomplish all of the following:
(1) Identify, as part of a medical screening, a patient’s risk for suicidal ideation and behavior.
(2) Document in the medical record a patient’s risk for suicidal ideation and behavior.
(3) Provide to a patient who exhibits a sign of a risk for suicidal ideation and behavior a current referral list of private and public community agencies that provide, or arrange for, the evaluation, counseling, and care of persons experiencing a risk of suicidal ideation and behavior, including, but not limited to, hotlines and locally available mental health services.
(4) Designate the licensed staff to be responsible for the implementation of these policies and procedures.
(c) After the adoption of written policies and procedures pursuant to
subdivision (a), a general acute care hospital shall routinely screen patients who are 12 years of age and older for a risk of suicidal ideation and behavior in compliance with those policies and procedures.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that a general acute care hospital, for purposes of satisfying the requirements of this section, adopt guidelines similar to the validated or evidence-based screening tools and suicide risk assessment tools recommended by the Joint Commission regarding screening for suicidal ideation and behavior risk and protocols to follow when a patient exhibits a sign of being at imminent risk for suicidal ideation and behavior.
The Legislature recognizes that, while guidelines evolve and change, the validated or evidence-based screening tools and suicide risk assessment tools recommended by the Joint Commission may serve, at this time, as a model to follow.
