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Senate Committee OKs amendment, advances bill to modernize geropsychiatric admissions
Summary
The Senate Human Services Committee advanced Senate Bill 2081, updated to remove a statutory requirement that the North Dakota State Hospital perform evaluations for admission to geropsychiatric skilled nursing units and to clarify admissions priority and departmental oversight. The amendment and the bill passed the committee unanimously.
Chair Judy Lee and members of the Senate Human Services Committee advanced Senate Bill 2081 on a unanimous voice vote after brief testimony and a narrowly focused amendment.
Pam Segnus, executive director of behavioral health at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee the bill would amend language in “chapter 50‑24.4‑29 regarding gero psychiatric facilities to align language to current process.” She said the department asked to remove the requirement that the North Dakota State Hospital perform an evaluation of every individual before admission to a gero‑psychiatric unit so “we avoid unnecessary evaluations by the North Dakota State Hospital” and to allow transfers directly when a person already has an evaluation from another provider.
The department also asked the committee to strike language “that prohibits the North Dakota State Hospital from offering gero psychiatric services through a unit set up exclusively to provide these…
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