37-3-204. Regulations establishing minimum standards.

The department shall create and promulgate minimum standards of quality and services for each designated class of programs. At least the following areas shall be covered in the rules and regulations:

Admission criteria which at a minimum must require a referral from either an inpatient psychiatric hospital that is discharging a patient to an adult residential mental health program or a determination by a qualified psychiatrist that admission is required to provide stabilization, treatment, and care of the condition but an inpatient admission to a psychiatric hospital is not required; and length of stay criteria which at a minimum shall be redetermined on a periodic basis through a mental health evaluation to include treatment goals and progress from the initial admission. Such mental health evaluation shall determine medical necessity for continued stay in the residential program with a maximum length of stay of six months unless an individual case waiver is approved by the department;#

Adequate and safe buildings or housing facilities where programs are offered and standards for emergency conditions relating to them;#

Adequate equipment for the delivery of adult residential mental health programs;#

Standards for sufficient trained staff or staff with prior experience who are competent in the duties they are to perform which, at a minimum, shall include a psychiatrist or other physician when the psychiatrist is unavailable, a registered professional nurse or advanced practice registered nurse, appropriately trained clinical case management staff to facilitate care and safe discharge planning, and mental health technicians or other similarly trained paraprofessionals or certified peer specialists at a ratio of not less than one to 12 patients or greater as assessed needs and history of the patient population indicates;#

The content and quality of services to be provided;#

Requirements for intake, discharge, and aftercare of mentally ill persons; financial relationships or arrangements with patients of the program; and visitation of patients;#

Referral arrangements to other appropriate agencies or facilities, including a process and adequate staff to facilitate transfer of a patient to a licensed general or specialty hospital authorized to provide inpatient medical or psychiatric services;#

Maintenance of adequate records on each mentally ill person treated or advised;#

Standards for the storage, administration, and dispensing of prescribed medications to patients in programs licensed under this article, in accordance with guidelines established by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the Georgia Board of Pharmacy;#

Permission for the use of therapeutic modalities and complementary services beneficial to the treatment of and supports for adult mentally ill persons;#

Permission and standards for the regulation or control and provision of food and other nutrition in each setting or classification of an adult residential mental health program;#

Standards for protection of patient rights while resident in a program and internal grievance procedures;#

Standards for the ethics and integrity of the staff, owners, and governing body of the program;#

Standards to ensure protection of the resident and the community at large in the event a resident poses a risk of potential harm to self or others; and#

Standards and procedures for incident reports to the department in the event of the occurrence of major incidents and provision for appropriate departmental actions and appeal thereof.#