What's happening
This bill requires New York to create and maintain a real-time web-based registry of available acute psychiatric beds statewide.
Why it matters
Improves crisis response. By providing real-time data on available acute psychiatric beds, the registry can help emergency responders, hospitals, and mental health professionals quickly place individuals in crisis, reducing delays in care and preventing people from languishing in unsuitable settings like emergency rooms.
Enhances system transparency and coordination. The registry will include both public and private facilities statewide, making it easier to identify where capacity exists and potentially streamlining collaboration between agencies and providers during psychiatric emergencies.
Mandates regular data updates and accountability. All state and licensed private psychiatric facilities must participate and update their bed availability at least daily, ensuring the information remains current and reliable for those making placement decisions.
Potentially influences resource allocation and policy. Aggregating real-time data on bed shortages or surpluses could inform state and local decisions about where to invest in new beds, services, or crisis stabilization units, supporting longer-term mental health system improvements.
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Track Psychiatric Bed Availability
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to mental health
- Referred to mental health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1776
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 17, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. LENTOL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Mental Health
AN ACT to amend the mental hygiene law, in relation to the creation of an acute psychiatric bed registry
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The mental hygiene law is amended by adding a new section 9.65 to read as follows: § 9.65 Acute psychiatric bed registry.
(a) The department shall develop and administer a web-based acute psychiatric bed registry to collect, aggregate, and display information about available acute beds in public and private inpatient psychiatric facilities and public and private residential crisis stabilization units to facilitate the identification and designation of facilities for the temporary detention and treatment of individuals who meet the criteria for temporary detention pursuant to this article.
(b) The acute psychiatric bed registry created pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section shall:
1. Include descriptive information for every public and private inpatient psychiatric facility and every public or private crisis stabilization unit in the state, including contact information for the facility;
2. Provide real-time information about the number of beds available at each facility and, for each available bed, the type of patient that may be admitted, the level of security provided, and any other information that may be necessary to allow employees or designees of community services boards and employees of psychiatric facilities to identify appropriate facilities for detention and treatment of individuals who meet the criteria for temporary detention pursuant to this article; and
3. Allow employees and designees of community services boards and employees of psychiatric facilities to perform searches of the registry
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04491-01-9
A. 1776 2
to identify available beds that are appropriate for the detention and treatment of individuals who meet the criteria for temporary detention.
(c) Every state facility, community services board, behavioral health authority, and private provider licensed by the department shall participate in the acute psychiatric bed registry established pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section and shall designate an individual to submit information for inclusion in the acute psychiatric bed registry and serve as a point of contact for addressing requests for information related to data reported to the acute psychiatric bed registry. Information reported to the acute psychiatric bed registry shall be updated at least daily.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.