Senate Bill No. 628
(By Senators Laird, Foster, Stollings and Kessler)
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[Introduced March 18, 2009; referred to the Committee on Health
and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on Government
Organization.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §30-5A-1, §30-5A-2,
§30-5A-3 and §30-5A-4, all relating to the creation of the
Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review
Team to examine and provide preventative education in cases
that involve unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdose
deaths.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §30-5A-1, §30-5A-2,
§30-5A-3 and §30-5A-4, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5A. UNINTENTIONAL PHARMACEUTICAL DRUG OVERDOSE FATALITY
REVIEW TEAM.
§30-5A-1. Legislative findings.
The Legislature finds that there is a need for a process to
study the causes of unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdose
fatalities that have occurred within West Virginia. The
Legislature finds that more extensive studies would enable a more
fully developed plan to avoid these deaths in the future.
§30-5A-2. Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team.
(a) The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team is hereby established under the West Virginia State
Board of Pharmacy. The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose
Fatality Review Team is a multidisciplinary team created to review
the deaths of people who die within the State of West Virginia due
to intoxication by any prescription or pharmaceutical drug overuse,
to be reviewed within one year of the time of death.
(b) The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team is a multidisciplinary team to consist of the following
members, the non ex officio members, appointed by the Governor with
the advice and consent of the Senate:
(1) The Director of the West Virginia State Board of Pharmacy,
who is to serve as the chairperson of the Unintentional
Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team and is
responsible for calling and coordinating all meetings;
(2) The Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health or a
designee;
(3) The Chief Medical Examiner in the Bureau of Public Health
or a designee;
(4) The Director of the Division of Vital Statistics or a
designee;
(5) One representative of the West Virginia State Medical
Association;
(6) One representative of the West Virginia Nurses
Association;
(7) One representative of the West Virginia Society of
Osteopathic Medicine;
(8) One representative of West Virginia Academy of Family
Physicians;
(9) One representative of the West Virginia Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics;
(10) One representative of the West Virginia State Police;
(11) One representative of the United States Attorney's Office
for the Northern District of West Virginia;
(12) One representative of the United States Attorney's Office
for the Southern District of West Virginia;
(13) One representative of the United States Drug Enforcement
Agency;
(14) One representative from the West Virginia Sheriff's
Association;
(15) The Director of the Unintentional Pharmecutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team;
(16) A licensed physician who practices pain management as a
majority of his or her practice, with a specialization in pain
control who, according to majority vote of a quorum of the other
members of the team in attendance during a regular session, has a
practice that focuses on pain control of patients not due to mortal
disease. Said physician usually serves as a consultant to other
physicians but is often the principal testing physician and may
provide care at various levels, such as treating the patient
directly, prescribing medication, prescribing rehabilitative
services, performing pain relieving procedures, counseling patients
and families, coordinating care with other health care providers
and providing consultative services to public and private agencies
pursuant to optimal health care delivery to the patient suffering
from pain. The objective of said physician is to provide quality
care to the patient suffering from pain, and may work in a variety
of settings and is competent to treat the entire range of pain
encountered in delivery of quality health care;
(17) One representative from the West Virginia Prosecutorial
Institute;
(18) Two representatives who serve as county prosecutors, or
their designees within their county office of the prosecuting
attorney otherwise licensed to practice law within West Virginia;
(19) A person who shall be considered an expert in bio-ethics training, according to majority vote of a quorum of the other
members of the team in attendance during a regular session;
(20) One current member of the West Virginia House of
Delegates;
(21) One current member of the West Virginia Senate;
(22) Any additional person that the chair of the team
determines is needed on a particular case being considered.
(c) Each non ex officio member shall serve for a term of five
years. Of the members of the commission first appointed, one shall
be appointed for a term ending June 30, 2010, and one each for
terms ending one, two, three and four years thereafter.
(d) Members of the Unintentional Pharmecutical Drug Overdose
Fatality Review Team shall, unless sooner removed, continue to
serve until their respective terms expire and until their
successors have been appointed and have qualified.
(e) Excluding subdivision (18) subsection (b) of this article,
an appointment of a physician, whether for a full term or to fill
a vacancy, is to be made by the Governor with the advice and
consent of the Senate, from among three nominees selected by the
West Virginia State Medical Association or the organization to be
represented on the team. When an appointment is for a full term,
the nomination is to be submitted to the Governor not later than
eight months prior to the date on which the appointment is to
become effective. In the case of an appointment to fill a vacancy, the nominations are to be submitted to the Governor within thirty
days after the request for the nomination has been made by the
Governor to the chairperson or president of the organization. When
an association fails to submit to the Governor nominations for the
appointment in accordance with the requirements of this section,
the Governor may make the appointment without nominations.
(f) Each member of the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug
Overdose Fatality Review Team shall serve without additional
compensation and may not be reimbursed for any expenses incurred in
the discharge of his or her duties under the provisions of this
article.
§30-5A-3. Responsibilities of the Unintentional Pharmaceutical
Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team
.
(a) The West Virginia State Board of Pharmacy, in consultation
with the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review
Team shall, pursuant to article three, chapter twenty-nine-a,
promulgate rules applicable to the following:
(1) The standard procedures for the establishment, formation
and conduct of the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose
Fatality Review Team, including review and utilization of database
access within the jurisdiction of the West Virginia Board of
Medicine to ascertain patterns of pharmaceutical prescriptions by
those otherwise licensed to provide said prescriptions; and
(2) The protocols for the review of unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdoses resulting in fatalities of those who
were not suffering from mortal disease shortly before death.
(b) The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team shall:
(1) Review all deaths of people who were not suffering from a
mortal disease, nonetheless die within the State of West Virginia
due to unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdoses, at the time or
within one year of the death;
(2) Ascertain the trends, patterns and risk factors;
(3) Provide statistical analysis regarding the causes of
unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdose fatalities; and
(4) Promote public awareness of the incidence and causes of
unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdose fatalities, including
recommendations for their reduction.
(c) The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team shall submit an annual report to the Governor and to
the Legislature concerning its activities within the state. The
report is due annually on December 1. The report is to include
such information as prescribed in subsections (b)(1), (b)(2) and
(b)(3), as well as recommendations to reduce the number of
unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdoses fatalities in the
state.
(d) The Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality
Review Team, in the exercise of its duties as defined in this section, may, among other things:
(1) Call witnesses or take testimony from individuals involved
in the investigation of a pharmaceutical drug overdose fatality;
(2) Contact a family member of the deceased;
(3) Enforce any public health standard or criminal law or
otherwise participate in any legal proceeding, and;
(4) Otherwise take any action which in the determination of
the prosecuting attorney or his or her assistant, impairs the
ability of the prosecuting attorney, his or her assistant or any
law-enforcement officer to perform his or her statutory duties.
(e) Proceedings, records and opinions of the Unintentional
Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team are confidential,
in accordance with section one, article seven, chapter forty-nine
of this code. Nothing in this subsection is to be construed to
limit or restrict the right to discover or use in any civil or
criminal proceeding anything that is available from another source
and entirely independent of the proceedings of the Unintentional
Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team.
(f) Members of the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose
Fatality Review Team may not be questioned in any civil or criminal
proceeding regarding information presented in or opinions formed as
a result of a meeting of the team. Nothing in this subsection may
be construed to prevent a member of the Unintentional
Pharmaceutical Drug Overdose Fatality Review Team from testifying to information obtained independently of the team or which is
public information.
§30-5A-4. Other agencies of government required to cooperate.
State, county and local agencies, hospitals and other health
agencies shall provide the Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug
Overdose Fatality Review Team with any information requested in
writing by the team as allowable by law or upon receipt of a
certified copy of the circuit court's order directing said agencies
to release information in its possession relating to the deceased.
The team shall assure that all information received and developed
in connection with this article remain confidential.
NOTE: This bill would create Unintentional Pharmaceutical Drug
Overdose Fatality Review Team to create a process for review teams
to examine and provide preventative education in cases that
involved unintentional pharmaceutical drug overdose deaths.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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