Long-term health facilities.

The Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act of 1973 generally provides for the licensure and regulation of long-term health care facilities by the State Department of Public Health and establishes an inspection and reporting system to ensure that long-term health care facilities are in compliance with state statutes and regulations. The term "long-term health care facility" includes, among other types of facilities, a skilled nursing facility and intermediate care facility. The act defines a class "A" violation as a violation that the department determines presents either (1) imminent danger that death or serious harm to the patients or residents of the long-term health care facility would result therefrom, or (2) substantial probability that death or serious physical harm to patients or residents of the long-term health care facility would result therefrom. The act defines a class "AA" violation as a class "A" violation that the department determines to have been a direct proximate cause of death of a patient or resident of the facility. The act defines a class "B" violation as a violation that the department determines has a direct or immediate relationship to the health, safety, or security of long-term health care facility patients or residents, other than class "AA" or "A" violations. Class "B" violations are also, unless otherwise determined by the department to be a class "A" violation, any violation of a patient's rights as set forth in specified regulations that is determined by the department to cause, or under circumstances likely to cause, significant humiliation, indignity, anxiety, or other emotional trauma to a patient. The act requires the department to prove specific elements to enforce a citation for a class "AA" violation, including the element that death resulted from an occurrence of a nature that the regulation was designed to prevent. This bill would redefine a class "AA" violation as a class "A" violation that the department determines to have been a substantial factor in the death of a resident of a long-term health care facility and would modify the elements the department is required to prove in an action to enforce a citation for a class "AA" violation. The bill would increase the civil penalties for a class "A," "AA," or "B" violation by a skilled nursing facility or intermediate care facility, as specified. The bill would delete numerous references to the "patients" of a long-term health care facility.