(A) As used in sections 339.01 to 339.17 of the Revised Code:

(1) "Hospital facilities" has the meaning given in section 140.01 of the Revised Code.

(2) "County hospital" includes all of the county hospital's branches and hospital facilities, wherever located.

(3) "Outpatient health facility" means a facility where medical care and preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, rehabilitative, or palliative items or services are provided to outpatients by or under the direction of a physician or dentist.

(B) A board of county commissioners may purchase, acquire, lease, appropriate, and construct a county hospital or hospital facilities thereof. After a county hospital or hospital facilities have been fully completed and sufficiently equipped for occupancy, any subsequent improvements, enlargements, or rebuilding of any such facility shall be made by the board of county hospital trustees or a hospital commission appointed pursuant to section 339.14 of the Revised Code.

(C)

(1) A board of county commissioners, board of county hospital trustees, or hospital commission may purchase, acquire, lease, appropriate, or construct an outpatient health facility in another county to serve as a branch of the county hospital. The outpatient health facility may include office space for physicians. The facility shall be operated pursuant to the law that regulates the operation of the county hospital.

(2) When a proposal to establish an outpatient health facility in another county is made by a board of hospital trustees or a hospital commission, all of the following apply:

(a) The board of county hospital trustees or hospital commission shall give written notice to its board of county commissioners and to the board of county commissioners of the county where the facility is to be located. The board of county commissioners where the facility is to be located, by resolution adopted within forty days after receipt of the notice, may object to the proposed facility. The resolution shall include an explanation of the objection and may make any recommendations the board considers necessary. The board shall send a copy of the resolution to the board of county hospital trustees or the hospital commission and to the board of county commissioners of the county that proposes to locate the facility in the other county.

(b) Except as provided in division (C)(2)(c) of this section, the board of county hospital trustees or the hospital commission may establish and operate the facility, unless the board of county commissioners of the county proposing to locate the facility in the other county, not later than twenty days after receiving a resolution of objection from the other county's board of county commissioners pursuant to division (C)(2)(a) of this section, adopts a resolution denying the trustees or commission the right to establish the facility.

(c) If a board of county commissioners provides a subsidy for uncompensated care to a board of county hospital trustees or hospital commission, the board of county hospital trustees or hospital commission may establish and operate the outpatient health facility only if that board of county commissioners approves the establishment of the facility.

(D) Notwithstanding division (C) of this section, a board of county hospital trustees of a charter county hospital, as defined in section 339.061 of the Revised Code, may purchase, acquire, lease, construct, own, operate, or manage hospital facilities in a county contiguous to a charter county. Such hospital facilities shall be operated pursuant to the law that regulates the operation of a charter county hospital.

(E) A county hospital may be designated as a monument to commemorate the services of the soldiers, sailors, marines, and pioneers of the county.

Amended by 132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 111, §1, eff. 9/28/2018.

Effective Date: 10-26-1999; 03-30-2007.