HF 449 (LSB 2334HV (3) 86)

HOUSE FILE 449

BY  COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

(SUCCESSOR TO HF 263)

(As Amended and Passed by the House 2015-03-12)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the development and initial implementation of an inpatient psychiatric bed tracking system by the department of human services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  INPATIENT PSYCHIATRIC BED TRACKING SYSTEM —— DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES.  The department of human services shall expend the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as is necessary, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2015, and ending June 30, 2016, to be used for the development and initial implementation of an inpatient psychiatric bed tracking system in accordance with this section.
   1.  In developing the requirements for procurement of the system, the department of human services shall engage the group of magistrates and hospital personnel that assisted the department in developing the hospital bed tracking system report submitted to the general assembly in December 2013, pursuant to 2013 Iowa Acts, chapter 130, section 56. The department shall also engage other interested representatives, including representatives of the regional mental health and disability services system, the state mental health institutes, the Iowa behavioral health association, the Iowa state sheriffs’ and deputies’ association, and the Iowa association of community providers. The procedural issues addressed by the group shall include but are not limited to the responsibility for data entry and verification, timeliness of data entry, confidentiality requirements associated with the data needed to ensure the usefulness of the system, and key characteristics and capacity information about the beds in the system.
   2.  The department shall base the procurement requirements on the recommendation option contained in the December 2013 report that projected the lowest annual maintenance and operating costs rather than the other option.
   3.  Upon a court-ordered mental health commitment of an adult or a child, the clerk of the district court shall utilize the electronic tracking system, once in place, to enter information into the system relating to the court order, check the database for the availability of open inpatient psychiatric hospital beds, and, if available, reserve the inpatient psychiatric hospital bed in the facility or institution to which a patient who is the subject of the mental health commitment order should be assigned. Once reserved, the bed cannot be assigned to any other person.