An act relating to the protection of patients in state hospitals. This is a Department of Social and Health Services request bill, which rewrites and reconfigures existing statutes governing mandatory reporting of harm to patients and whistleblower protections. Separate provisions exist under current law governing public and private institutions for the mentally ill from laws that require reporting of abuse and neglect in nursing homes and state hospitals. Existing statutory provisions governing abuse of patients in nursing homes or state hospitals are repealed and recodified with changes in statutes governing public and private facilities for the mentally ill.
Broader conduct is reportable and actionable under the new definitions.
For example, abandonment is not currently defined, but requires mandatory reporting and whistleblower protections under new provisions. People who make good faith reports under the statute are immune from liability, and state employees have whistleblower protections that preclude discrimination in employment based upon the reporting. State employees have remedies available under employment laws, which include damage claims, and immunity protections. An employee who reports may ask for confidentiality of his or her identity. Rebuttable presumptions of retaliatory action are described.