Gov. Code, § 855 · Chapter 5. Medical, Hospital and Public Health Activities
Gov. Code, § 855
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A public entity that operates or maintains any medical facility that is subject to regulation by the State Department of Health Services, Social Services, Developmental Services, or Mental Health is liable for injury proximately caused by the failure of the public entity to provide adequate or sufficient equipment, personnel or facilities required by any statute or any regulation of the State Department of Health Services, Social Services, Developmental Services, or Mental Health prescribing minimum standards for equipment, personnel or facilities, unless the public entity establishes that it exercised reasonable diligence to comply with the applicable statute or regulation.
(b) A public entity that operates or maintains any medical facility that is not subject to regulation by the State Department of Health Services, Social Services, Developmental Services, or Mental Health is liable for injury proximately caused by the failure of the public entity to provide adequate or sufficient equipment, personnel or facilities substantially equivalent to those required by any statute or any regulation of the State Department of Health Services, Social Services, Developmental Services, or Mental Health prescribing minimum standards for equipment, personnel or facilities applicable to a public medical facility of the same character and class, unless the public entity establishes that it exercised reasonable diligence to conform with such minimum standards.
(c) Nothing in this section confers authority upon, or augments the authority of, the State Department of Health Services, Social Services, Developmental Services, or Mental Health to adopt, administer or enforce any regulation. Any regulation establishing minimum standards for equipment, personnel or facilities in any medical facility operated or maintained by a public entity, to be effective, must be within the scope of authority conferred by law.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1978, Ch. 429.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=855.
- Text hash
- sha256 0b39abb28ea6b264e027110a5992a835dfbf3e0b19bbb754ad0190f7d61a618f
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 3 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Gov. Code, § 855. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.