SB 462

This bill requires the Department of Health Services to establish a certification

process for crisis urgent care and observation facilities and a grant program to award

grants to develop and support these facilities. Under the bill, a crisis urgent care and

observation facility is a treatment facility that admits an individual to prevent,

de-escalate, or treat the individual's mental health or substance use disorder and

includes the necessary structure and staff to support the individual's needs relating

to the mental health or substance use disorder. The bill provides that no person may

operate a crisis urgent care and observation facility without a certification from

DHS. Under the bill, a certified crisis urgent care and observation facility is not

regulated as a hospital, except to the extent the facility is otherwise required due to

the facility's licensure or certification for other services or purposes. The bill provides

that the provisions of the bill may not be construed to prohibit, limit, or otherwise

interfere with services provided by a county or a hospital or other facility that are

provided consistent with the facility's existing licensure or certification, whether the

facility is publicly or privately funded.

The bill provides that DHS may certify crisis urgent care and observation

facilities that demonstrate the ability to do certain things, including 1) accept

referrals for crisis services for adults, and, if applicable, for youth, including

involuntary patients under emergency detention, walk-ins, and individuals brought

by law enforcement, emergency medical responders or emergency medical services

practitioners, or county crisis personnel; 2) abstain from having a requirement for

medical clearance before admission assessment; 3) provide assessments for physical

health, substance use disorder, and mental health; 4) provide screening for suicide

and violence risk; 5) provide medication management and therapeutic counseling;

6) provide coordination of services for basic needs; 7) provide for the safety and

security of both the staff and the patients; 8) have adequate staffing 24 hours a day,

7 days a week, including through use of telehealth, with a multidisciplinary team,

including, as needed, psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners, nurses,

licensed clinicians capable of completing assessments, peers with lived experience,

and other appropriate staff; 9) allow for voluntary and involuntary treatment of

individuals in crisis as a means to avoid unnecessary placement of those individuals

in hospital inpatient beds and allow for an effective conversion to voluntary

stabilization when warranted in the same setting; and 10) contribute, from one or

more nonstate, federal, or third-party sources, an amount, as determined by DHS,

in addition to any grant awarded by DHS under the bill. The bill requires that DHS

must provide the Joint Committee on Finance with certain information and obtain

approval of that committee before granting certification to a crisis urgent care and

observation facility. The bill also requires DHS to provide an annual report to the

Joint Committee on Finance regarding the facilities.

Under the bill, a certified crisis urgent care and observation facility must accept