Increases the frequency that visitation or inspections of facilities operated or licensed by the office of mental retardation and developmental disabilities must be made each year.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5594
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 20, 2009
___________
Introduced by Sen. HUNTLEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Mental Health and Develop-
mental Disabilities
AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to increasing the
frequency of visitation and inspection of facilities per year
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision (a) of section 16.11 of the mental hygiene law,
2 as amended by chapter 214 of the laws of 1993, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 (a) The commissioner shall provide for the periodic visitation and
5 inspection of each facility. Inspections shall be made as frequently as
6 the commissioner may deem necessary but in any event such inspections
7 shall be made on at least [two] three occasions during each calendar
8 year[, at least one of] which shall be without prior notice, provided,
9 however, that where, in the discretion of the commissioner, an operating
10 certificate has been issued to a program with a history of compliance
11 and a record of providing a high quality of care, the periodic
12 inspection and visitation required by this subdivision shall be made at
13 least [once] twice during each calendar year provided such [visit]
14 visits shall be without prior notice. Any member or members of a board
15 of visitors, appointed pursuant to section 13.33 of this title, and any
16 other individual or individuals the commissioner at his or her
17 discretion approves, may accompany inspectors during the state's period-
18 ic visitations and inspections conducted pursuant to this section as
19 independent monitors.
20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11946-02-9
