SECTIONS 5550 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 5550

5550. (a) Any person participating in filing a complaint or
providing information pursuant to this chapter or participating in a
judicial proceeding resulting therefrom shall be presumed to be
acting in good faith and unless the presumption is rebutted shall be
immune from any liability, civil or criminal, and shall be immune
from any penalty, sanction, or restriction that otherwise might be
incurred or imposed.
(b) No person shall knowingly obstruct any county patients' rights
advocate in the performance of duties as described in this chapter,
including, but not limited to, access to clients or potential
clients, or to their records, whether financial, medical, or
otherwise, or to other information, materials, or records, or
otherwise violate the provisions of this chapter.
(c) No facility to which the provisions of Section 5325 are
applicable shall discriminate or retaliate in any manner against a
patient or employee on the basis that such patient or employee has
initiated or participated in any proceeding specified in this
chapter. Any attempt by a facility to expel a patient, or any
discriminatory treatment of a patient, who, or upon whose behalf, a
complaint has been submitted to a county patients' rights advocate
within 120 days of the filing of the complaint shall raise a
rebuttable presumption that such action was taken by the facility in
retaliation for the filing of the complaint.
(d) No county patients' rights advocate shall knowingly violate
any provision of this chapter concerning client privacy and the
confidentiality of personally identifiable information.
(e) Any person or facility found in violation of subdivision (b)
or (d) shall pay a civil penalty, as determined by a court, of not
less than one hundred dollars ($100), or more than one thousand
dollars ($1,000) which shall be deposited in the county general
funds.