Mississippi § 41-21-141 - Implementation of comprehensive psychiatric emergency service; licensure for number of extended observation beds required; final disposition required within 72 hours.

§ 41-21-141. Implementation of comprehensive psychiatric emergency service; licensure for number of extended observation beds required; final disposition required within 72 hours.

To implement a comprehensive psychiatric emergency service, a single point of entry must request licensure from the State Department of Health for the number of extended observation beds that are required to adequately serve the designated catchment area. A license for the requested beds must be obtained before beginning operation. If the State Department of Health determines that a comprehensive psychiatric emergency service can provide for the privacy and safety of all patients receiving services in the hospital, the department may approve the location of one or more of the extended observation beds within another area of the hospital rather than in proximity to the emergency department. Each comprehensive psychiatric emergency service shall provide or contract to provide qualified physicians, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychiatric physician assistants and ancillary personnel necessary to provide services twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week. A comprehensive psychiatric emergency service shall have at least one (1) physician, psychiatric nurse practitioner or psychiatric physician assistant, who is a member of the staff of the hospital, on duty and available at all times. However, the medical director of the service may waive this requirement if provisions are made for a physician in the emergency department to assume responsibility and provide initial evaluation and treatment of a person in custody of a CIT officer or referred by the community mental health center and provisions are made for the physician, psychiatric nurse practitioner or psychiatric physician assistant on call for the comprehensive psychiatric emergency service to evaluate the person onsite within thirty (30) minutes of notification that the person has arrived. Any person admitted to a comprehensive psychiatric emergency service must have a final disposition within a maximum of seventy-two (72) hours. If a person cannot be stabilized within seventy-two (72) hours, that person shall be transferred from an extended observation bed to a more appropriate inpatient unit.