The Florida Senate

¹395.1055  Rules and enforcement.--

(1)  The agency shall adopt rules pursuant to ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54 to implement the provisions of this part, which shall include reasonable and fair minimum standards for ensuring that:

(a)  Sufficient numbers and qualified types of personnel and occupational disciplines are on duty and available at all times to provide necessary and adequate patient care and safety.

(b)  Infection control, housekeeping, sanitary conditions, and medical record procedures that will adequately protect patient care and safety are established and implemented.

(c)  A comprehensive emergency management plan is prepared and updated annually. Such standards must be included in the rules adopted by the agency after consulting with the Department of Community Affairs. At a minimum, the rules must provide for plan components that address emergency evacuation transportation; adequate sheltering arrangements; postdisaster activities, including emergency power, food, and water; postdisaster transportation; supplies; staffing; emergency equipment; individual identification of residents and transfer of records, and responding to family inquiries. The comprehensive emergency management plan is subject to review and approval by the local emergency management agency. During its review, the local emergency management agency shall ensure that the following agencies, at a minimum, are given the opportunity to review the plan: the Department of Elderly Affairs, the Department of Health, the Agency for Health Care Administration, and the Department of Community Affairs. Also, appropriate volunteer organizations must be given the opportunity to review the plan. The local emergency management agency shall complete its review within 60 days and either approve the plan or advise the facility of necessary revisions.

²(d)  New facilities and a new wing or floor added to an existing facility after July 1, 1999, are structurally capable of serving as shelters only for patients, staff, and families of staff and patients, and equipped to be self-supporting during and immediately following disasters.

²(e)  Construction, maintenance, repair, lifesafety, and renovation of licensed facilities are governed by the most recently adopted, nationally recognized lifesafety code, except as may be specifically modified by rule.

(f)  Licensed facilities are established, organized, and operated consistent with established standards and rules.

(g)  Licensed facility beds conform to minimum space, equipment, and furnishings standards as specified by the department.

(h)  All hospitals submit such data as necessary to conduct certificate-of-need reviews required under ss. 408.031-408.045. Such data shall include, but shall not be limited to, patient origin data, hospital utilization data, type of service reporting, and facility staffing data. The agency shall not collect data that identifies or could disclose the identity of individual patients. The agency shall utilize existing uniform statewide data sources when available and shall minimize reporting costs to hospitals.

(i)  Each hospital has a quality improvement program designed according to standards established by their current accrediting organization. This program will enhance quality of care and emphasize quality patient outcomes, corrective action for problems, governing board review, and reporting to the agency of standardized data elements necessary to analyze quality of care outcomes. The agency shall use existing data, when available, and shall not duplicate the efforts of other state agencies in order to obtain such data.

(2)  Separate standards may be provided for general and specialty hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, mobile surgical facilities, and statutory rural hospitals as defined in s. 395.602.

(3)  The agency shall adopt rules with respect to the care and treatment of patients residing in distinct part nursing units of hospitals which are certified for participation in Title XVIII (Medicare) and Title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act skilled nursing facility program. Such rules shall take into account the types of patients treated in hospital skilled nursing units, including typical patient acuity levels and the average length of stay in such units, and shall be limited to the appropriate portions of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (Pub. L. No. 100-203) (December 22, 1987), Title IV (Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Health-Related Programs), Subtitle C (Nursing Home Reform), as amended.

(4)  The agency shall adopt rules with respect to the care and treatment of clients in intensive residential treatment programs for children and adolescents and with respect to the safe and healthful development, operation, and maintenance of such programs.

(5)  The agency shall enforce the provisions of part I of chapter 394, and rules adopted thereunder, with respect to the rights, standards of care, and examination and placement procedures applicable to patients voluntarily or involuntarily admitted to hospitals providing psychiatric observation, evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment.

(6)  No rule shall be adopted under this part by the agency which would have the effect of denying a license to a facility required to be licensed under this part, solely by reason of the school or system of practice employed or permitted to be employed by physicians therein, provided that such school or system of practice is recognized by the laws of this state. However, nothing in this subsection shall be construed to limit the powers of the agency to provide and require minimum standards for the maintenance and operation of, and for the treatment of patients in, those licensed facilities which receive federal aid, in order to meet minimum standards related to such matters in such licensed facilities which may now or hereafter be required by appropriate federal officers or agencies in pursuance of federal law or promulgated in pursuance of federal law.

(7)  Any licensed facility which is in operation at the time of promulgation of any applicable rules under this part shall be given a reasonable time, under the particular circumstances, but not to exceed 1 year from the date of such promulgation, within which to comply with such rules.

History.--ss. 26, 30, ch. 82-182; s. 5, ch. 83-244; ss. 40, 49, ch. 83-334; s. 41, ch. 87-92; s. 27, ch. 90-344; ss. 27, 98, ch. 92-289; s. 28, ch. 93-129; s. 24, ch. 93-211; s. 1, ch. 94-317; s. 31, ch. 96-169; s. 6, ch. 98-89; s. 99, ch. 98-200; s. 7, ch. 98-303; s. 104, ch. 99-8; ss. 22, 135, ch. 2000-141.

¹Note.--

A.  Section 10, ch. 98-303, provides that "[m]obile surgical facilities in operation pursuant to a contract with the Department of Corrections entered into prior to [May 29, 1998] shall continue to operate pursuant to such contract and shall only be subject to the provisions of this act subsequent to the effective date of any rules promulgated by the Agency for Health Care Administration relating to mobile surgical facilities."

B.  Section 22, ch. 2000-141, added subsection (8), effective July 1, 2001, to read:

(8)  The agency may not adopt any rule governing the design, construction, erection, alteration, modification, repair, or demolition of any public or private hospital, intermediate residential treatment facility, or ambulatory surgical center. It is the intent of the Legislature to preempt that function to the Florida Building Commission and the State Fire Marshal through adoption and maintenance of the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code. However, the agency shall provide technical assistance to the commission and the State Fire Marshal in updating the construction standards of the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code which govern hospitals, intermediate residential treatment facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers.

²Note.--Repealed July 1, 2001, by s. 135, ch. 2000-141.

Note.--Former s. 395.005.