(a) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, including, but not limited to, Section 1271.1, a health facility may do any of the following:
(1) (A) It may place all or a portion of its licensed bed capacity in voluntary suspension for the purposes of using the facility to operate a licensed mental health rehabilitation center pursuant to Section 5675 of the Welfare and Institutions Code after submitting written notification to the State Department of Health Services and to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. During the period of voluntary suspense, the facility shall remain under the jurisdiction of the office. The office shall enforce both the mental health rehabilitation center requirements and the health facility requirements of the California Building Standards Code.
(B) A mental health rehabilitation center operating under this paragraph may remove all or any portion of its voluntarily suspended bed capacity from voluntary suspension by submitting a request to the State Department of Health Services.
(C) The department shall grant the request under subparagraph (B) to remove bed capacity from voluntary suspension and to reinstatement of the health facility bed capacity, unless the facility fails to meet currently applicable operational requirements for a health facility.
(b) This section authorizes the voluntary suspension of bed capacity or surrender of a license by a health facility only for the purpose of converting the facility for use as a licensed mental health rehabilitation center pursuant to Section 5675 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(Added by Stats. 2004, Ch. 509, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2005.)