2023 Rhode Island General Laws › Title 40.1 - Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals › Chapter 40.1-5 - Mental Health Law › Section 40.1-5-32. - Transfer of patients.

§ 40.1-5-32. Transfer of patients.
(a)
No transfer of a patient already in a facility shall be made to a facility, or section of a facility, maintained for patients certified upon an order of a court or judge having criminal jurisdiction in a proceeding arising out of a criminal offense. The official in charge of a facility, or the official’s designated agent, shall have reasonable discretion to order or permit transfers within a facility for reason of finances, adequacy of personnel, and upon conditions set forth in rules or regulations promulgated by the director pursuant hereto.
(b)
A patient certified to any facility pursuant to the provisions of this chapter may be transferred, with the patient’s consent or that of the patient’s guardian, to any facility within or without the state or to an institution operated by the Veterans’ Administration or to any agency of the United States government for the treatment of psychiatric disability at a facility under its jurisdiction, within or without the state, when deemed in the interest of the patient and approved by the transferring and receiving facilities. A transfer as above described may be accomplished without the consent of a patient, or the patient’s guardian, only upon prior application to, and a hearing in, the district court (or family court in the case of a patient under eighteen (18) years of age) and a specific finding by the court that the proposed transfer is in the best interests of the patient and is to a facility that will afford the patient the care and treatment necessary and appropriate to the patient’s condition.
(c)
A patient received on voluntary admission may be transferred as provided in subsection (b) with the patient’s consent; and if the patient shall not yet have attained the patient’s eighteenth birthday, with the consent of the patient’s parent, guardian, next of kin, or person who signed for his or her admission. A voluntary patient may be transferred to another facility without the patient’s consent only upon the filing of a petition for certification to the facility, and a finding of probable cause at a preliminary hearing in accordance with § 40.1-5-8.
(d)
Patients transferred to facilities without the state, or to the Veterans’ Administration or the United States Public Health Service, or another agency operated by the United States government, shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the facility or institution to which they are transferred, and the person or official in charge thereof, in connection with the care and treatment of the patient, being vested with the same powers as persons in charge of similar facilities within the state, provided that no such transfer shall be made to a facility maintained for the purpose of patients committed upon an order of a court or judge having criminal jurisdiction in a proceeding arising out of a criminal offense. Transfers of patients between states that have entered into the interstate compact on mental health shall be pursuant to and in accordance with said compact whenever applicable.
History of Section.
P.L. 1966, ch. 100, § 1; P.L. 1968, ch. 168, § 6; G.L. 1956, § 40-20-15; Reorg. Plan No. 1, 1970; G.L. 1956, § 40.1-5-15; P.L. 1974, ch. 119, § 1; P.L. 1976, ch. 215, § 1; P.L. 1983, ch. 30, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 80, § 1; P.L. 2022, ch. 231, art. 11, § 7, effective June 27, 2022.