MENTAL HEALTH PATIENT SURVEILLANCE H.B. 5315 (H-1):
FLOOR SUMMARY
House Bill 5315 (Substitute H-1 as reported without amendment)
Sponsor: Representative Pat Somerville
House Committee: Health Policy
Senate Committee: Health Policy
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Mental Health Code to do the following:
-- Permit video surveillance to be conducted in a psychiatric hospital in common areas for purposes of safety, security, and quality improvement.
-- Require a psychiatric hospital to establish policies and procedures that identified where video surveillance images would be recorded and saved, and addressed notification of recipients and visitors, as well as security of, access to, and duplication of the footage.
-- Prohibit recordings taken in common areas from being used for treatment or therapeutic purposes.
-- Require the policies and procedures to provide that recorded video surveillance images could not be maintained as part of a recipient's clinical record.
-- Refer to audiorecordings, rather than audiotapes, in provisions prescribing the circumstances under which a recipient of mental health services may be audiotaped and the ways in which the audiotapes may be used.
-- Require photographs of a recipient taken for purely social or personal purposes to be maintained as the recipient's personal property.
MCL 330.1724 Legislative Analyst: Julie Cassidy
FISCAL IMPACT
Installation of video equipment at State psychiatric facilities would lead to a minor increase in costs for the State, in the range of a few thousand dollars.
Date Completed: 12-4-12 Fiscal Analyst: Steve Angelotti
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.