Ordinance #319-88
An ordinance of the Borough of Darlington, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Regulating Nursing Homes within the Borough.
Be it ordained and enacted and it is hereby ordained and enacted by the Council of the Borough of Darlington, County of Beaver, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Sec. 1. This Ordinance shall be known as the Nursing Home Ordinance.
Sec. 2. Definition
For the purpose of this Ordinance a “home” is hereby defined to mean any institution, place or family used for the reception or care for a period longer than twenty-four hours of three or more children or infants apart from their parents. A home is further defined to mean any institution used for the reception or care of persons who are dependent or not capable of properly caring for themselves, and shall be understood to include homes for the aged, or infirm, orphan asylums, refuges and shelters, and also boarding homes caring for three or more women with their children when such children are less than fourteen years of age.
Sec. 3. License Required
It shall be unlawful for any person firm or association or corporation, other than the regularly constituted authorities of the United States, the County, the Borough or the State or any association or institution for the care of children which has been accredited, certified or licensed by the state, pursuant to an act of the legislature, to regulate the treatment and control of dependent, neglected, and delinquent children, to open, conduct, manage or maintain any home, as defined in this ordinance, within the corporate limits of the Borough without first obtaining a license therefore as is hereinafter provided.
Sec. 4. Application
Any person, firm or corporation or association desiring such license shall make application in writing to the Borough Secretary. Such application shall conform to the general provisions of the Borough Ordinances relating to applications for licenses and shall state the location or proposed location of the home, the purpose for which it is to be opened, maintained or conducted, the accommodations for inmate thereof, the nature and kind of care, instructions of benefits given or proposed to be given therein, the name and address of the officials conducting, managing or maintaining said home, the name of the superintendent or person in charge of said home, the name and address of the chief physician or surgeon, or the names and addresses of the board of physicians or surgeons attending therein if there is such a board.
Sec. 5. Inspection
It shall be the duty of the designated officer upon presentation of such application to make or cause to be made strict inquiry into the facts set forth in such application and if upon inquiry into the facts and inspection of the premises, he shall find that such home complies with all ordinance and state requirements relating thereto, he shall recommend to the Mayor and the Borough Council that a license be issued.
Sec. 6. License Fee
The license fee for such license to be paid annually in advance to the clerk shall be One Hundred ($100.00) Dollars.
Sec. 7. Accommodations for Inmates Regulations as to Sanitation
In every such home each room occupied by inmates shall be of such dimensions as shall give each inmate not less than four hundred (400) cubic feet of air space. Every such room shall have at least one window connecting with the external air for each four beds. Said window shall be of such dimensions as shall secure to each inmate at least one thousand five (1,500) cubic feet or fresh air per hour by ventilation, or in case said window shall not secure one thousand five hundred (1,500) cubic feet of fresh air per hour by natural ventilation, then each room shall in addition thereto, be fitted with such appliances for ventilation as shall secure to each inmate in said room at least one thousand five hundred cubic feet of fresh air per hour. Each bed shall have at least forty (40) square feet of floor space, and in every room or dormitory containing more than one bed, the beds shall be so arranged as to leave a passageway of not less than two (2) feet horizontally on all sides of such bed.
Each ward or wing of said home shall have running water furnished in one or more places, either in said ward or convenient thereto so that the same be adequate and convenient to the occupants thereof. The plumbing, water, closets, bathrooms and sanitary appliances and equipment shall be constructed in accordance with the ordinances relating thereto. The floor of the cellar or basement in the building used as a home shall be properly cemented so as to be water tight. The halls of each floor shall be open to the external air with suitable windows and shall have no room or other obstruction at end thereof, unless sufficient light and ventilation is otherwise provided for such halls, and the building as a whole shall be provided with adequate and proper fire escapes, stairways or inclines for exits.
All homes including the culinary department, dining room, laundry, laboratory, morgue and post-mortem rooms connected with the same shall be equipped from May 15th to November 15th, with doors, screens and other appliances necessary for the exclusion of flies.
Sec. 8. Penalty
Any person, firm or corporation violating any provision of this ordinance shall be fined not less than ten ($10.00) dollars or more than three hundred ($300.00) dollars for each offense; and a separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during or on which a violation occurs or continues; provided further that in the case of a conviction of any person, firm or corporation for a violation of any provision of this ordinance relating to the safety and accommodation of the inmates it shall be the duty of the health inspector, and he is hereby authorized an empowered to close such home and cause its vacation pending repairs, alterations or additions necessary to make it safe and proper for the occupancy of its inmates and to make it comply with provisions of this Ordinance.
Sec. 9.
That any ordinance, or part of any ordinance, conflicting with this ordinance, be and the same is hereby repealed insofar as the same affects this ordinance.
Enacted and ordained this 24th day of March, 1988.
Romaine Shugars, President of Council
Attest: Virginia Martin, Secretary of Council
Approved this 24th day of March, 1988.
Romaine Shugars, Acting Mayor