Montoya v. Trinidad State Nursing Home2/10/2005
he General Assembly authorized the State Board of Human Services to adopt rules to effectuate that purpose. See § 26-12-113, C.R.S. 2004. Pursuant to such authority, the State Board of Human Services has implemented regulations governing the operation of nursing homes and has defined a "long-term care facility" as:
health facility that holds itself out as a nursing home, nursing facility, nursing care facility or intermediate care facility or a health facility that is planned, organized, operated, and maintained to provide supportive, restorative, and preventive services to persons who, due to physical and/or mental disability require continuous or regular inpatient care.
See Dep't of Public Health & Environment Ch. V (definition), 6 Code Colo. Regs. 1011-1; see also Webster's, supra, 1552 (defining nursing home as "a private home or other place where maintenance and personal or nursing care are provided for three or more persons who are unable to care for themselves properly").
In contrast, hospitals are governed by separate statutory and regulatory schemes. See § 25-3-101, et seq., C.R.S. 2004; Dep't of Public Health & Environment Ch. IV. A "general hospital" is defined in the regulations as:
A health facility that, under an organized medical staff, offers and provides twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, inpatient services, emergency medical and surgical care, continuous nursing services, and necessary ancillary services, to individuals for the diagnosis or treatment of injury, illness, pregnancy, or disability.
Dep't of Public Health & Environment Ch. IV, Reg. No. 1.01.
As the statutory and regulatory provisions make apparent, both the General Assembly and the regulatory agencies have treated hospitals and nursing homes differently. For instance, the regulations governing hospitals provide that a hospital is required to have physicians on staff. See Dep't of Public Health & Environment Ch. IV, Reg. Nos. 1.2, 3.2. Trinidad has no doctor on staff. In addition, a hospital is required to provide diagnostic, anesthesia, laboratory, emergency, and radiological services. See Dep't of Public Health & Environment Ch. IV, Reg. Nos. 1.02, 7.1, 8.1.1, 11.1, 24.1. Trinidad does not provide such services. Further, although whether a facility is licensed as a hospital is not dispositive of whether it is a public hospital for purposes of the GIA, "it is an important factor for consideration." Plummer, supra, 987 P.2d at 875. Again, Trinidad is not licensed as a hospital.
We also note that the plain meaning of the term "hospital," which is defined as "an institution or place where sick or injured persons are given medical or surgical care," see Plummer, supra, 987 P.2d at 874, supports the conclusion that Trinidad is not a public hospital. The term "medical" is commonly defined as "of, relating to, or concerned with physicians or with the practice of medicine often as distinguished from surgery." Webster's, supra, 1402. The plain meaning of "surgical" is "of, relating to, or concerned with surgeons or surgery." Webster's, supra, 2301. Both definitions concern the provision of services by a doctor, and, as noted, Trinidad does not have a doctor on staff.
Finally, as the division in Plummer, supra, 987 P.2d at 875, noted: " he General Assembly's use of the term 'hospital' without enumeration of other types of facilities, as it has done in other statutes involving health care, suggests that it intended the waiver of immunity for the 'operation of a public hospital' to be limited." See also Daley v. Univ. of Colo. Health Sci. Ctr., ___ P.3d ___ (Colo. App. No. 04CA0078, Jan. 27, 2005)(provision of
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