Amended  IN  Assembly  April 05, 2021
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 11, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1394

Introduced by Assembly Member Irwin

February 19, 2021

An act to add Division 1.7 (commencing with Section 1199) to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1394, as amended, 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, 2023, a general acute care hospital to establish and adopt written policies and procedures to screen patients who are 12 to 24 years of age, inclusive, for purposes of detecting a risk for suicide. 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 to 24 years of age, inclusive, for a risk of suicide in compliance with the policies and procedures.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Division 1.7 (commencing with Section 1199) is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

DIVISION 1.7. Suicide Screening

1199.
 (a) On or before January 1, 2023, a general acute care hospital shall establish and adopt written policies and procedures to screen patients who are 12 to 24 years of age, inclusive, for purposes of detecting a risk for suicide.
(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 suicide.
(2) Document in the medical record a patient’s risk for suicide.
(3) Provide to a patient who exhibits any sign of a risk for suicide 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 suicide, 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 to 24 years of age, inclusive, for a risk of suicide 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 those developed by the National Institute for Mental Health regarding screening for suicide risk. The Legislature recognizes that while guidelines evolve and change, the guidelines by the National Institute for Mental Health may serve, at this time, as a model to follow.