Current StatusView additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.Bill Number: 1287 Ratification Number: 596 Act Number 527 Introducing Body: Senate Subject: "Hospital" defined
(A527, R596, S1287)
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 44-7-130, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO DEFINITIONS RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL, SO AS TO DEFINE "RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITY FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS" AND ADD THOSE FACILITIES TO THE FACILITIES INCLUDED IN THE DEFINITION OF "HOSPITAL" AND TO DEFINE "CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN NEED OF MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT".
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
"Hospital" defined
SECTION 1. Section 44-7-130(4) of the 1976 Code, as amended by Act 184 of 1987, is further amended to read:
"(4) 'Hospital' includes public health centers and general, tuberculosis, mental, chronic disease, and other types of hospital and related facilities such as outpatient facilities, nursing homes, state health laboratories, nurses' training facilities, facilities for persons with developmental disabilities (formerly facilities for the mentally retarded), residential treatment facilities for children and adolescents, community mental health centers, including facilities for alcoholics and narcotic addicts, and residential care facilities providing care for nonambulatory persons."
Definitions
SECTION 2. Section 44-7-130 of the 1976 Code, as amended by Act 184 of 1987, is further amended by adding appropriately numbered items to read:
"( ) 'Residential treatment facility for children and adolescents' means a facility operated for the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and care by two or more persons of 'children and adolescents in need of mental health treatment' which provides:
(a) a special education program with a minimum program defined by the South Carolina Department of Education;
(b) recreational facilities with an organized youth development program; and
(c) residential treatment for a child or adolescent in need of mental health treatment.
( ) 'Children and adolescents in need of mental health treatment' in a residential treatment facility means a child or adolescent under age eighteen who manifests a substantial disorder of cognitive or emotional process, which lessens or impairs to a marked degree that child's capacity either to develop or to exercise age-appropriate or age-adequate behavior. The behavior includes, but is not limited to, marked disorders of mood or thought processes, severe difficulties with self-control and judgment including behavior dangerous to self or others, and serious disturbances in the ability to care for and relate to others."
Time effective
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval of the Governor.