ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2088
State of Washington | 68th Legislature | 2024 Regular Session |
ByRepresentatives Orwall, Reed, Ormsby, Ramel, Macri, Cheney, Lekanoff, Riccelli, Wylie, and Reeves; by request of Health Care Authority
Prefiled 01/03/24.Read first time 01/08/24.Referred to Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to extending liability protections for responders dispatched from mobile rapid response crisis teams and community-based crisis teams; and amending RCW
71.24.907.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW
71.24.907 and 2023 c 454 s 13 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) No act or omission related to the dispatching decisions of any crisis call center staff or designated 988 contact hub staff with endorsed mobile rapid response crisis team and community-based crisis team dispatching responsibilities done or omitted in good faith within the scope of the individual's employment responsibilities with the crisis call center or designated 988 contact hub and in accordance with dispatching procedures adopted both by the behavioral health administrative services organization and the crisis call center or the designated 988 contact hub and approved by the authority shall impose liability upon:
(a) The clinical staff of the crisis call center or designated 988 contact hub or their clinical supervisors;
(b) The crisis call center or designated 988 contact hub or its officers, staff, or employees;
(c) Any member of a mobile rapid response crisis team or community-based crisis team endorsed under RCW
71.24.903;
(d) The certified public safety telecommunicator or the certified public safety telecommunicator's supervisor; or
(e) The public safety answering point or its officers, staff, or employees.
(2) No act or omission in the provision of crisis stabilization services, professional on-site community-based intervention, outreach, de-escalation, stabilization, resource connection, or follow-up support, and delivered under the clinical supervision of a mental health professional or an approved medical program director or their delegate, to a person who is experiencing a behavioral health crisis, and which is done or omitted in good faith within the scope of the individual's employment responsibilities, shall impose liability upon:
(a) Any staff of an endorsed or nonendorsed mobile rapid response crisis team or community-based crisis team, including teams operated by tribes, or staff of a crisis stabilization unit or a 23-hour crisis relief center, including facilities operated by tribes;
(b) Any officer of a public, private, or tribal agency, the superintendent, any professional person in charge or their professional designee, or any attending staff of any such agency; or
(c) Any federal, tribal, state, county, city, other local governmental unit, or contracted behavioral health agency, or employees of such units or agencies.
(3) This section shall apply to any act or omission by any person or entity listed in subsection (2) of this section involved in the transport of patients to behavioral health services, facilities providing crisis stabilization services, or other needed crisis services.
(4) This section shall not apply to any act or omission which constitutes either gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct.
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