Roughly 423 facilities are covered under Article 28 of the Public Health Law. These include general hospitals and their hospital extension clinics (excludes offices of mental health facilities, veteran hospitals, and designated hospices), diagnostic and treatment centers, and their extension clinics (a majority of these are ambulatory and surgery centers). Article 28 facilities are defined as hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic treatment centers (D&TC), and midwifery birth centers. The following Article 28 licensed facilities are currently required to submit data to SPARCS:
- General Hospitals
- Hospital Extension Clinics licensed for ambulatory surgery services
- Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (D&TC) licensed for ambulatory surgery services
- D&TC Extension Clinics licensed for ambulatory surgery.
These facilities are required to submit their data under their assigned Facility Identifier (formerly known as Permanent Facility Identifier [PFI]).
Under the statutory authority of Article 28, Section 3401 of the Public Health Law (PHL), and Title 10 of the New York Codes of Rules and Regulations (NYCRR), Section 405, providers who do not qualify or choose not to operate as private practices may be licensed by the State to operate free-standing clinics are also known as Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (Clinics). These free-standing clinics are separately owned and are not operated by a hospital. By contrast, clinics that are owned and operated by a hospital are known as Hospital Extension Clinics. Free-standing clinics include state-licensed Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (D&TCs) that are also federally certified to provide specialized services, such as surgery or dialysis.