The department shall have the power to provide in State institutions to be known as geriatric centers either or both of the following:
(1) Public nursing home care as defined in Article IV relating to public assistance for persons who are sixty-five years of age or over and who because they continue to need medical or other necessary health care, are admitted immediately upon discharge from State mental institutions;(2) Inpatient or outpatient diagnostic, screening or preventive services for persons for whom, because of physical or mental infirmity usually associated with senescence, admission is being sought in an institution providing long-term care and the cost of whose care in the long-term institution will be paid wholly or partially from funds administered by the department. Geriatric centers shall not constitute, nor shall they be operated as, institutions for tuberculosis or mental diseases.1967, June 13, P.L. 31, No. 21, art. 3, § 331.