republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-161.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF HOSPITALS.	This Act adds an additional classification for surgical hospitals. House Bill No. 91 adopted by the 150th General Assembly (82 Del. Laws c. 73) revised the statutory definition of hospital and classified hospitals as either General, Long-term care, Psychiatric, or Rehabilitation. The existing classifications do not include surgical hospitals, those specialized hospitals providing surgical services at a level of care higher than freestanding surgery centers but whose patients do not require all of the services provided by “General” acute care hospitals. This Act will allow the Department of Health and Social Services to license and regulate surgical hospitals providing inpatient and outpatient surgical services to patients whose duration of stay is not expected to exceed 72 hours.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	HB 161	Delaware HB 161 (151)	bill		enacted	David Bentz Ernesto B. Lopez Sarah McBride Stephen Smyk	2	9	2	2021-04-15	2021-07-30	openstates	ocd-bill/d4ab907d-1972-4b7a-b456-9fcd50e918b0	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=58581	a718190269abf9b25a7b71424e3448619468e846d4631d196b290eda7b095b29	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 161 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF HOSPITALS.

This Act adds an additional classification for surgical hospitals. House Bill No. 91 adopted by the 150th General Assembly (82 Del. Laws c. 73) revised the statutory definition of hospital and classified hospitals as either General, Long-term care, Psychiatric, or Rehabilitation. The existing classifications do not include surgical hospitals, those specialized hospitals providing surgical services at a level of care higher than freestanding surgery centers but whose patients do not require all of the services provided by “General” acute care hospitals. This Act will allow the Department of Health and Social Services to license and regulate surgical hospitals providing inpatient and outpatient surgical services to patients whose duration of stay is not expected to exceed 72 hours.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source
2. HA 1 to HB 161 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 21–0 (pass) · upper
• SM — 41–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• David Bentz — primary (person)
• Ernesto B. Lopez — primary (person)
• Sarah McBride — primary (person)
• Stephen Smyk — primary (person)
• David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
• John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
• John L. Mitchell — cosponsor (person)
• Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
• Larry Lambert — cosponsor (person)
• Michael F. Smith — cosponsor (person)
• Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2021-04-15 Introduced and Assigned to Health & Human Development Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-05-07 Amendment HA 1 to HB 161 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2021-05-12 Reported Out of Committee (Health & Human Development) in House with 6 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2021-05-20 Amendment HA 1 to HB 161 - Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES amendment-passage
• 2021-05-20 Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES passage
• 2021-05-20 Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-06-17 Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 3 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2021-06-29 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2021-07-30 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/d4ab907d-1972-4b7a-b456-9fcd50e918b0. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).