Involuntary discharge denied as long-term care facility failed to demonstrate threat to health or safety

The purpose of this hearing was to determine whether a Georgia long-term care facility was permitted to involuntarily discharge a patient to her mother’s home. The facility initiated the discharge because it purportedly was not equipped to handle the patient’s purported violent and hypersexual behavior resulting from brain injuries. The Court reversed the facility’s proposal to discharge because the action violated Georgia’s Bill of Rights for Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities, which requires that the facility provide a statement by a physician that a failure to transfer the resident would “threaten the health or safety of the resident or others.”