Title HSC — California Health & Safety Code

Any officer, employee, or agent of the state department may, upon presentation of proper identification, enter and inspect any building or premises at any reasonable time to secure compliance with, or to prevent a violation of, any provision of this chapter.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the public policy of the State of California to encourage patients, nurses, members of the medical staff, and other health care workers to notify government entities of suspected unsafe patient care and conditions. The Legislature…

The Legislature finds and declares that California has an insufficient number of minority health professionals to meet the health care needs in the state. Greater numbers of minority health professionals are required to meet the special needs of population groups who face cultura…

It is the intent of the Legislature to maintain a Health Professions Career Opportunity Program designed to: (a) Increase the number of ethnic minorities in health professional training. (b) Increase the number of minority health professionals practicing in health manpower shorta…

(a) The department shall maintain a Health Professions Career Opportunity Program that shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following: (1) Implementing programs at colleges and universities selected by the department, which may include public and private institutions.…

(a) Every health facility for which a license or special permit has been issued shall be periodically inspected by the department, or by another governmental entity under contract with the department. The frequency of inspections shall vary, depending upon the type and complexity…

(a) A health facility licensed pursuant to subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 shall report an adverse event to the department no later than five days after the adverse event has been detected, or, if that event is an ongoing urgent or emergent threat to the welfare, hea…

(a) (1) In any case in which the department receives a report from a facility pursuant to Section 1279.1, or a written or oral complaint involving a health facility licensed pursuant to subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250, that indicates an ongoing threat of imminent dan…

(a) By January 1, 2015, the department shall provide information regarding reports of substantiated adverse events pursuant to Section 1279.1 and the outcomes of inspections and investigations conducted pursuant to Section 1279.1, on the department’s Internet Web site and in writ…

(a) A health facility, as defined in subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (f) of Section 1250, shall develop, implement, and comply with a patient safety plan for the purpose of improving the health and safety of patients and reducing preventable patient safety events. The patient safet…

(a) A health facility, as defined in subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (f) of Section 1250, shall implement a facilitywide hand hygiene program. (b) Commencing January 1, 2017, a health facility, as defined in subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (f) of Section 1250, is prohibited from usin…

(a) Every health facility, as defined in subdivision (c), (d), (e), (g), (h), (i), or (m) of Section 1250, shall, for the purpose of addressing issues that arise when a patient is missing from the facility, develop and comply with an absentee notification plan as part of the writ…

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that evidence exists to support the development of health promotion and health-risk reduction programs as an effective method of constraining the annual inflation rate for expenditures in the health industry. It is, therefore, the intent of …

(a) In administering the National Health Service Corps State Loan Repayment Program in accordance with Section 254q-1 of Title 42 of the United States Code and related federal regulations, the Department of Health Care Access and Information shall strive, whenever feasible, to eq…

Recognizing that there is a shortage in supply of registered nurses, and that if the number of nursing students is to be materially increased to meet the demand there must first be an increase in the number of persons qualified for teaching or supervising in clinical areas, and f…

There shall be available at least 10 scholarships per year. The scholarships shall be available to any registered nurse who is enrolled in one of the following accredited nursing programs in a college or university in California that is accredited by the Western Association of Sc…

A person shall not be awarded a scholarship under subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 127980 unless: (a) They are a resident of California. (b) They are licensed as a registered nurse by this state. (c) They have complied with all the regulations adopted pursuant to this article. (…

No person shall be awarded a scholarship under subdivision (c) of Section 127980 unless he or she satisfies the requirements prescribed by subdivisions (a), (b), (c), and (e) of Section 127985.

The department shall administer the program of nursing education scholarships and shall for this purpose, adopt regulations as it determines are necessary to carry out this article.

(a) The state department may provide consulting services upon request to any health facility to assist in the identification or correction of deficiencies or the upgrading of the quality of care provided by the health facility. (b) The state department shall notify the health fac…

(a) Subject to subdivision (d), prior to the effective date of regulations adopted to implement Section 1280.3, if a licensee of a health facility licensed under subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 receives a notice of deficiency constituting an immediate jeopardy to the…

(a) A clinic, health facility, home health agency, or hospice licensed pursuant to Section 1204, 1250, 1725, or 1745 shall prevent unlawful or unauthorized access to, and use or disclosure of, patients’ medical information, as defined in Section 56.05 of the Civil Code and consis…

For purposes of Sections 1280.17, 1280.18, 1280.19, and 1280.20, the following definitions apply: (a) “Department” means the State Department of Public Health. (b) “Director” means the State Public Health Officer. (c) “Medical information” means the term as defined in Section 56.…

(a) (1) The department may assess an administrative fine against any person or any provider of health care, whether licensed or unlicensed, for any violation of Section 1280.18 of this code or Part 2.6 (commencing with Section 56) of Division 1 of the Civil Code in an amount as p…

(a) Every provider of health care shall establish and implement appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of a patient’s medical information. Every provider of health care shall reasonably safeguard confidential medical information from…

(a) Effective July 1, 2025, the Internal Health Information Integrity Quality Improvement Account is hereby abolished. All moneys in the fund shall be transferred to the Internal Departmental Quality Improvement Account created pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 1280.15. Any …

(a) No deficiency cited pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 1280 or Section 1280.1 shall be for the failure of a facility to meet the requirements of the California Building Standards Code if, as of January 1, 1994, the hospital building was approved under Cha…

Notwithstanding any other law, the director may send a recommendation for further investigation of, or discipline for, a potential violation of the licensee’s relevant licensing authority. The recommendation shall include all documentary evidence collected by the director in eval…

(a) Commencing on the effective date of the regulations adopted pursuant to this section, the director may assess an administrative penalty against a licensee of a health facility licensed under subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 for a deficiency constituting an immedia…

(a) If a licensee of a health facility licensed under subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 fails to report an adverse event pursuant to Section 1279.1, the department may assess the licensee a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed one hundred dollars ($100) for each da…

The state department shall accept, consider, and resolve written appeals by a licensee or health facility administrator of findings made upon the inspection of a health facility.

In assessing an administrative penalty pursuant to Section 1280.1 or Section 1280.3 against a licensee of a health facility licensed under subdivision (a) of Section 1250 owned by a nonprofit corporation that shares an identical board of directors with a nonprofit health care ser…

Applications for scholarships shall be made to the department, upon forms provided by it, at the times and in the manner prescribed by the regulations adopted by the office.

The department shall award the scholarships to the applicants that it determines are best fitted to undertake the educational program for which the scholarships are awarded and will be the best qualified to teach or supervise. In awarding the scholarships the department may give …

Scholarships shall be awarded without regard to race, religion, creed, or sex.

Each scholarship under this article is for the period of no more than one academic year, and the award shall be: (a) For a person qualifying under subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 127980, the sum of two hundred dollars ($200) per month for 12 months, plus school fees. (b) For a …

A scholarship shall remain in effect only during the period, as determined by the department, that the person receiving the award achieves satisfactory progress and is regularly enrolled, within the terms of this article, as a full-time student.

For the purpose of this article, “innovative programs of education in the health professions” means programs for the development of physicians and surgeons, podiatrists, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, optometrists, and occupations in the allied health professions, that emphasize …

The department, in cooperation with the California Postsecondary Education Commission, shall administer the program established pursuant to this article and shall for this purpose, adopt regulations as it determines are reasonably necessary to carry out this article.

The department is authorized to make grants, from funds appropriated by the Legislature for this purpose, to assist organizations in meeting the cost of special projects to plan, develop, or establish innovative programs of education in the health professions, or for research in …

(a) The Department of Health Care Access and Information shall report to the Legislature on or before June 30, 2002, on the feasibility of establishing a California dental loan forgiveness program utilizing the same general guidelines applicable to the federal National Health Ser…

The Department of Health Care Access and Information shall establish a health care workforce research and data center to serve as the central source of health care workforce and educational data in the state. The research and data center will serve as the state’s central source o…

The Department of Health Care Access and Information shall work with the Employment Development Department’s Labor Market Information Division, state licensing boards, and state higher education entities to collect, to the extent available, all of the following data: (a) The curr…

The Department of Health Care Access and Information shall prepare an annual report to the Legislature that does all of the following: (a) Identifies education and employment trends in the health care profession. (b) Reports on the current supply and demand for health care worker…

All public and private general acute care hospitals either shall comply with the standards for the examination and treatment of victims of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault, including child sexual abuse, and the collection and preservation of evidence therefrom, specifi…

(a) All general acute care hospitals with an emergency department shall adopt and implement policies and procedures to facilitate the self-identification of an emergency department patient as a victim of human trafficking or domestic violence to hospital personnel. (b) The polici…

(a) The state department shall have the authority to contract for outside personnel to perform inspections of health facilities as the need arises. The state department, when feasible, shall contract with nonprofit, professional organizations which have demonstrated the ability t…

(a) No health facility shall surrender the physical custody of a minor under 16 years of age to any person unless such surrender is authorized in writing by the child’s parent, the person having legal custody of the child, or the caregiver of the child who is a relative of the ch…

A licensed inpatient mental health facility shall be subject to the provisions of Section 5622 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.

(a) No patient shall be detained in a health facility solely for the nonpayment of a bill. (b) For the purposes of this section, “detained” means the intentional confinement of a patient in a health facility without authorization of the patient or any other person who may be auth…