Under existing law, the State Department of Health Care Services is responsible for administering prevention, treatment, and recovery services for alcohol and drug abuse. Existing law also provides for the certification and regulation of adult alcoholism or drug abuse recovery and treatment programs by the department and authorizes the department to enforce those provisions. Existing law requires the department’s death investigation policy to be designed to ensure that a resident’s death is addressed and investigated by the department in a timely manner, and requires specified procedures if a death occurs in a licensed facility, including requiring a written report related to the death that includes a description of the followup action that is planned to prevent a future death. Existing law requires that report to be submitted to the department within 7 calendar days of the event or incident.

This bill, John’s Law, would additionally require a facility to submit to the department, within 30 days of the initial incident, any relevant information that was not known at the time of the initial incident. If the department identifies any violations of specified licensing provisions during its investigation of a resident’s death, the bill would require the department to issue a written notice of deficiency to the facility. The bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific these provisions through the use of all-county letters, provider bulletins, or similar instructions without taking any further regulatory action.