This regulation establishes psychosocial staffing ratios for narcotic treatment programs in Pennsylvania, requiring compliance with Chapter 704 staffing requirements. It specifies patient-to-staff and patient-to-counselor ratios across multiple care settings including residential detoxification, hospital detoxification, residential treatment, inpatient hospital treatment, partial hospitalization, and outpatient services. Operators must ensure the correct number of full-time equivalent primary care staff and counselors are available during primary care hours based on total patient census.
View official source28 Pa. Code § 715.8 - Psychosocial staffing State Regulations Compare A narcotic treatment program shall comply with the following staffing ratios as established in Chapter 704 (relating to staffing requirements for drug and alcohol treatment activities.): (1) General requirements. A narcotic treatment program shall comply with the patient/staff and patient/counselor ratios in subparagraphs (i)-(vi) during primary care hours. These ratios refer to the total number of patients being treated, including patients with diagnoses other than drug and alcohol addiction served in other facets of the project. Family units may be counted as one patient. (i) Inpatient nonhospital detoxification (residential detoxification). (A) There shall be one full-time equivalent (FTE) primary care staff person available for every seven patients during primary care hours. (B) There shall be a narcotic treatment physician on-call at all times. (ii) Inpatient hospital detoxification. There shall be one FTE primary care staff person available for every five patients during primary care hours. (iii) Inpatient nonhospital treatment and rehabilitation (residential treatment and rehabilitation). A narcotic treatment program serving adult patients shall have one FTE counselor for every eight patients. (iv) Inpatient hospital treatment and rehabilitation (general, psychiatric or specialty hospital). A narcotic treatment program serving adult patients shall have one FTE counselor for every five patients. (v) Partial hospitalization. A partial hospitalization narcotic treatment program shall have a minimum of one FTE counselor who provides direct counseling services to every ten patients. (vi) Outpatients. The counseling caseload for one FTE counselor in an outpatient narcotic treatment program may not exceed 35 active patients. (2) Counselor assistants. A counselor assistant eligible for a counseling caseload may be included in determining FTE ratios. Notes 28 Pa. Code § 715.8 State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare. No prior version found. State Regulations Toolbox