Health care providers to display inspection approval

(CNS): All doctors’ offices, hospitals and other health care facilities that have been inspected by the Department of Health Regulatory Services will be given a health care facility certificate to show they have passed muster. All facilities inspected in accordance with the national standards gazetted in April 2010 should be displaying the certificate to inform their customers that the facilities have met with approval. The certificates also prove that the practitioners working in the facility are professionally registered. Officials said that inspections are done in accordance with The Health Practice Law (2005 Revision), Section 16, which calls for the inspection of all health care facilities.

This law defines a health care facility as: “premises at which health services are provided by a registered practitioner.” Section 16 further requires that these facilities are “…being kept in accordance with the standards set by the Commission relating to physical facilities, equipment, personnel and procedures which standards shall accord with relevant guidelines or codes in the United Kingdom, Canada or the United States of America.”

Facilities that do not fit the legal definition of a health care facility, such as tattoo parlours and colon cleansing businesses, are not subject to the inspection requirement and cannot be registered through the Department of Health Regulatory Services.

The Department of Environmental Health, under the Public Health Law, is charged with the inspection of facilities and activities for adequate hygienic, sanitary and safety procedures. There are no certificates issued by the Department of Environmental Health for this inspection.

For more information on the registration of health care facilities, visit the Department of Health Regulatory Service’s website at http://dhrs.ky/hpc/