Title 23, Title 23 and Safety

(a) The advisory council shall meet at least quarterly and shall advise the governor, speaker of the house, and president of the senate on developments and advances on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. (b) In coordination with the department of heal…

(a) The director of the department of health shall publish on the department’s website an Alzheimer’s disease assessment protocol specifically focused on recognizing the signs and symptoms of cognitive impairments, including, but not limited to, Alzheimer’s disease and appropriat…

(a) All physicians licensed pursuant to chapter 37 of title 5, and nurses licensed pursuant to chapter 34 of title 5, shall, no later than October 1, 2023, complete a one-time course of training consisting of a minimum of one hour of instruction on the diagnosis, treatment, and c…

(a) Every healthcare facility as defined in § 23-17-2 shall, not later than October 1, 2023, complete and implement an operational plan for the recognition and management of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. (b) The department of health shall promulgate rul…

(a) The department of health, in consultation with the advisory council created pursuant to § 23-1.7-2, shall incorporate information about brain health, dementia risk factors and risk reduction, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias into existing public health outreach progra…

This chapter may be cited as the “Health Care Facility Licensing Act of Rhode Island”.

(a)(1) The licensing agency, with the advice of the health services council, shall, after a public hearing pursuant to reasonable notice, adopt, amend, promulgate, and enforce rules, regulations, and standards with respect to each category of healthcare facility to be licensed un…

Any health maintenance organization licensed under this chapter whose rates are approved by and whose financial condition and methods of doing business are periodically examined by the director of business regulation, and which was actively engaged in the provision of or making a…

Any hospital or freestanding emergency-care facility licensed under this chapter, other than state-operated hospitals, shall annually submit to the director of the department of health: (a) Public audited financial statements containing information concerning all hospital-related…

(a) Any nursing facility which offers to provide or provides care for patients or residents with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia by means of an Alzheimer’s special care unit shall be required to disclose the form of care or treatment provided, in addition to that care and t…

Any nursing facility which offers to provide or provides care for patients or residents by means of a rehabilitation special care unit or sub-acute special care unit shall be required to disclose the form of care or treatment provided, in addition to that care and treatment requi…

(a) Each nursing facility licensed under this chapter shall designate a physician to serve as medical director. The medical director shall be responsible for implementation of resident care policies and for the coordination of medical care in the facility. Such responsibilities s…

Each nursing facility licensed under this chapter shall have a plan for preventing the hazards of resident wandering from the facility. The plan shall be submitted to the licensing agency in a format determined by the director.

The licensing agency shall establish regulations to require each licensed nursing facility, as part of the initial resident admission and assessment process, to review and consider any notice provided to the facility as required in subsection 42-56-10(23) concerning the resident’…

A physician or any other person who is a member of or associated with the medical staff of a health care facility or any employee of a health care facility in which an abortion or any sterilization procedure is scheduled, and who shall state in writing an objection to the abortio…

(a) The licensing agency shall make or cause to be made unannounced inspections and investigations of nursing facilities. The director shall establish by regulation criteria to determine the frequency for unannounced inspections and investigation that shall include specific crite…

(a) Inspections and investigations shall include health, sanitation, nursing care, and dietary and other conditions immediately affecting the patients. (b) The department shall assign responsibility for verifying compliance with licensing requirements and issuing renewal licenses…

The department of health shall develop a data modeling or other capacity to use quality data already collected from nursing facilities to detect patterns of high performance and/or potential deficiency(ies) affecting resident care.

(a) Established. Each licensed nursing facility shall develop and implement a quality improvement program and establish a quality improvement committee. (b) Each licensed nursing facility shall designate a qualified individual, who shall be determined by the facility’s administra…

(a) Every corporation or person who will be inspected or investigated under § 23-17-12 will begin to correct health, sanitation, nursing care, and dietary defects immediately upon notice by the director of health that the defects exist. The notification will be made by certified …

Every person including a controlling person, or corporation who shall willfully and continually violate the provisions of §§ 23-17-12 — 23-17-12.2 will be subject to a fine up to three hundred dollars ($300) for each violation of these sections. For purposes of this section, “con…

The director of health shall refer all violations of §§ 23-17-12 — 23-17-12.2 to the chief counsel within the department of health for appropriate action.

(a) Complaints regarding a nursing facility that do not constitute patient abuse, neglect or mistreatment, as regulated under chapter 17.8 of this title, shall be investigated and evaluated by the department as follows: (1) The investigation and evaluation shall be made within tw…

(a) Under the authority granted to the director in § 23-1-21 and in addition to any other statutory authority, whenever the director determines that there is a deficiency in a nursing facility that constitutes immediate jeopardy to health and safety of a resident or residents, th…

(a) Whenever the department, or the department in consultation with the department of human services, determines that a nursing facility’s financial status is of concern and determines, through inspection of the facility or investigation of a complaint, that incident(s), event(s)…

The department is authorized to adopt federal Medicare nurse staff posting requirements by regulation. In addition to any federal requirements for posting of nursing staff levels, the nursing facility shall post the nurse staff levels for the facility in a public place within the…

The director shall establish regulations which: (1) notify the resident, or his or her legal representative, the resident’s family representative, the resident’s attending physicians of record and the nursing facility’s medical director, if that resident has been found to be in i…

(a) There shall be established a health services council consisting of twelve (12) members, four (4) of whom shall be appointed by the speaker of the house, one who shall be an expert in healthcare economic and policy matters, and a second who shall represent the insurance busine…

The health services council shall have the following responsibilities and duties: (1) To consult and advise with the licensing agency regarding licensing reviews conducted under §§ 23-17-14.3 and 23-17-14.4 and in matters of policy affecting administration of this chapter, and in…

No member of the health services council while acting in his or her capacity as a council member shall be liable for any civil damages as a result of individual or collective actions or recommendations as a member of the council.

The chairperson and vice chairperson of the health services council and no other member of the council while serving on business of the council shall receive compensation for the discharge of their official duties.

Except as otherwise provided in this section, a review by the health services council of an application for an initial license or a license in the case of a proposed change in the owner, operator, or lessee of any licensed health care facility may not be made subject to any crite…

(a) Within ten (10) working days of receipt, in acceptable form, of an application for an initial license or a license in connection with a change in the owner, operator, or lessee of any existing health care facility, the licensing agency will notify and afford the public an opp…

Information received by the licensing agency through filed reports, inspection, or as otherwise authorized under this chapter shall not be disclosed publicly in any manner that identifies individuals except in a proceeding involving the question of licensure.

Copies of survey reports from the joint commission on accreditation of health care organizations and the American Osteopathic Association and any other reports from other accrediting organizations incorporated by reference in the reports, provided to the licensing agency by hospi…

The licensing agency shall prepare and publish an annual report of its activities and operations under this chapter.

Any person establishing, conducting, managing, or operating any health care facility without a license under this chapter shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) or imprisoned not more than one year or both, in the discretion of the court, for each offense.

Any person who shall obtain medical or surgical or obstetrical treatment, under false representations of his or her financial condition, from any health care facility, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500) o…

Notwithstanding the existence or pursuit of any other remedy, the licensing agency may, in the manner provided by law upon the advice of the attorney general who shall represent the licensing agency in the proceedings, maintain an action in the name of the state for injunction or…

Every healthcare facility licensed under this chapter shall observe the following standards and any other standards that may be prescribed in rules and regulations promulgated by the licensing agency with respect to each patient who utilizes the facility: (1) The patient shall be…

Every health care facility licensed pursuant to this title shall provide a copy of the provisions of § 23-17-19.1 to each inpatient or his or her representative at the time of admission to the health care facility and shall display a copy of the provisions of § 23-17-19.1 in a co…

(a) All health care providers as licensed under the provisions of chapter 29 or 37 of title 5 and all health care facilities as defined in § 23-17-2 shall be required to note in their patients’ permanent medical records the name of individual(s) not legally related by blood or ma…

As used in this chapter: (1) “Affiliate” means a legal entity that is in control of, is controlled by, or is in common control with another legal entity. (2) “Alzheimer’s dementia special-care unit or program” means a distinct living environment within a nursing facility that has…

The provisions of this chapter shall not be construed to apply to clinical laboratories licensed in accordance with chapter 16.2 of this title, facilities licensed by the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals or by the department of human s…

The director of the department of health shall have power to enforce the provisions of this chapter.

If any provision of this chapter or the application of any provision of this chapter to any person or circumstance shall be held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect the provisions or application of this chapter which can be given effect without the invalid provision or appli…