(a)
If a vacancy occurs in a hospital under the jurisdiction of the Director of State Hospitals, he or she shall appoint, as provided in Section 4301, a clinical director, a hospital administrator, a hospital director, and program directors.
(b)
A hospital administrator shall be a college graduate, preferably with an advanced degree in hospital, business, or public administration and shall have had experience in this area. He or she shall receive a salary that is competitive with other private and public mental hospital administrators.
(c)
A clinical director for a state hospital shall be a physician who has passed, or shall pass, an examination for a license to practice medicine in California and shall
be a qualified specialist in a branch of medicine that includes diseases affecting the brain and nervous system. The clinical director for a state hospital shall be well qualified by training or experience to have proven skills in mental hospital program administration.
(d)
The hospital director shall be either the hospital administrator or the clinical director. He or she shall be selected based on his or her overall knowledge of the hospital, its programs, and its relationship to its community, and on his or her demonstrated abilities to administer a large facility.
(e)
The standards for the professional qualifications of a program director shall be established by the Director of State Hospitals for each patient program. The director shall not adopt regulations that prohibit a licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric technician, or clinical social worker from employment
in a patient program in any professional, administrative, or technical position; provided, however, that the program director of a medical-surgical unit shall be a licensed physician.
(f)
If the program director is not a physician, a physician shall be available to assume responsibility for all those acts of diagnosis, treatment, or prescribing or ordering of drugs that may only be performed by a licensed physician.