Hospital Compliance — the Legal Map
The lawful operation of a hospital, clinic or other medical facility in Georgia is built on several layers of the Law on Health Care: legal status and functions, the licensing and permit regime, employment of personnel, the body protecting patients' rights, and the technical regulation of high-risk activity. This page describes these layers on the basis of the law's exact norms — what the facility's income structure must look like, which activity requires which document, and what follows from a breach of the regulation.
From a compliance perspective, documentary precision is valued most: the licence or permit, the list of employable personnel, the ethics commission and the notification form are each a separate compliance object, and neglecting them can go as far as suspension of the activity.
Status and Functions of a Medical Facility
A medical facility is a legal person of an organisational-legal form allowed by Georgian legislation that carries out medical activity in the prescribed manner. The law sets a special financial criterion: the share of income from medical activity in the facility's financial resources must be at least 75%, and at least 75% of the average annual value of the fixed assets on its balance must be earmarked for performing the medical functions. Income from services performed under internal standards and from other economic activity — 100% of it compared with the previous year — remains at the facility's disposal, and the remuneration fund must constitute at least 30% of the income.
The functions of medical facilities are: determining the patient's state of health; prophylaxis and/or treatment of diseases, rehabilitation of patients, palliative care; obstetric activity; pharmaceutical activity; pathologico-anatomical examination of corpses and forensic medical examination; and the carrying out of epidemiological control measures. A facility is obliged to provide emergency medical care to a patient in the cases provided for by law, to observe the standards, rules and norms regulating medical and pharmaceutical activity, and to ensure equal accessibility of the facility for persons with disabilities.
Licence, Permit and Personnel
In the sphere of medical activity, the document confirming the respective right — a licence and/or permit — is issued by the ministry. The carrying out of medical activity subject to a licence and/or permit under Georgian legislation is impossible without the appropriate document. The list of health-care personnel entitled to employment and holding appropriate education is approved by the minister — who may be employed in a facility is thus determined centrally.