Special hospitals.

Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate each health facility, defined to mean a facility, place, or building that is organized, maintained, and operated for the diagnosis, care, prevention, and treatment of human illness, and includes, among others, a general acute care hospital, an acute psychiatric hospital, and a special hospital. Existing law defines a "special hospital" as a health facility having a duly constituted governing body with overall administrative and professional responsibility and an organized medical or dental staff that provides inpatient or outpatient care in dentistry or maternity. This bill would expand the meaning of "special hospital" to include inpatient or outpatient respiratory care.