Acute Care Programs

Acute Care Program

The Acute Care Program provides federal and state regulatory oversight for facilities caring for patients experiencing acute illnesses, injuries, or disorders. These facilities are hospitals (acute, critical access, rehabilitation, and psychiatric), ambulatory surgery centers, psychiatric rehabilitation treatment facilities, and community mental health centers. Services the Acute Care Program offers are: initial state licensure surveys, change in bed capacity surveys, certification surveys for Medicare, and complaint investigations.

Ambulatory Surgery Centers

Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Centers means any institution, building, or facility, or part thereof, devoted primarily to the provision of surgical treatment to patients not requiring hospitalization, as provided under provisions of O.C.G.A. § 31-7- 1(4)(c). Such facilities do not admit patients for treatment which normally requires overnight stay, nor provide accommodations for treatment of patients for a period of twenty-four (24) hours or longer.

Community Mental Health Centers (Federal Only)

Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) is as defined in §410.2: “an entity that- (1) Provides outpatient services, including specialized outpatient services for children, the elderly, individuals who are chronically mentally ill, and clients of its mental health service area who have been discharged from inpatient treatment at a mental health facility; (2). Provides 24-hour-a-day emergency care services; (3) Provides day treatment or other partial hospitalization services, or psychosocial rehabilitation services; (4) Provides screening for patients being considered for admission to State mental health facilities to determine the appropriateness of this admission; (5) Meets applicable licensing or certification requirements for CMHCs in the State in which it is located; and (6) Provides at least 40 percent of its services to individuals who are not eligible for benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act.”

Hospitals 

Hospital means any building, facility, or place in which are provided two (2) or more beds and other facilities and services that are used for persons received for examination, diagnosis, treatment, surgery, or maternity care for periods continuing for twenty-four (24) hours or longer and which is classified by the department as a hospital.

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Treatment Facilities

This facility type is also known as Residential Mental Health Facility. Residential mental health facility for children and youth is a sub-classification of a “Specialized Hospital” and is defined as a facility providing twenty-four (24) hour care and having the primary functions of diagnosing and treating patients to age twenty-one (21) with psychiatric disorders to restore them to an optimal level of functioning.