SB529 SUB1
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 529
(By Senators Wooton, Bailey, Walker and Macnaughtan)
[Originating in the Committee on Health and Human Resources;
Reported February 28, 1996.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section five, article five-a, chapter
twenty-six of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said
article by adding thereto a new section, designated section
seven; all relating to standard and emergency commitment
proceedings for persons with communicable tuberculosis;
authorizing the bureau of public health to make application
for involuntary commitment in emergency situations; setting
forth the procedures for involuntary commitment of persons
suffering from tuberculosis, requiring information related
to persons unccoperative behavior; authorizing magistrate to
accept application in certain circumstances, permitting
immediate detention for defined period of time; permiting
postponement of hearing for defined time; and requiring immediate committment of persons upon finding of probable
cause.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section five, article five-a, chapter twenty-six of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be
further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated
section seven, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5A. TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL.
§26-5A-5. Procedure when patient is health menace to others.
(a) If such any practicing physician, public health
officer, or chief medical officer having under observation or
care any person who is suffering from tuberculosis in a
communicable stage is of the opinion that the environmental
conditions of such that person are not suitable for proper
isolation or control by any type of local quarantine as
prescribed by the state health department bureau of public health
of the department of health and human resources, and that such
the person is unable or unwilling to conduct himself or herself
and to live in such a manner as not to expose members of his or
her family or household or other persons with whom he or she may
be associated to danger of infection, he or she shall report the
facts to the department of bureau of public health which shall forthwith investigate or have investigated the circumstances
alleged.
(b) If it the bureau of public health shall find that any
such person's physical condition is a health menace to others,
the department of bureau of public health shall petition the
circuit court of the county in which such the person resides, or
the judge thereof in vacation, alleging that such the person is
afflicted with communicable tuberculosis and that such the
person's physical condition is a health menace to others, and
requesting an order of the court committing such the person to
one of the state tuberculosis institutions for the treatment of
tuberculosis: Provided, That if the bureau of public health
determines than an emergency situation exists which warrants the
immediate detention and commitment of a person suffering from
tuberculosis, an application for immediate involuntary commitment
may be filed pursuant to section seven of this article.
(c) Upon receiving the petition, the court shall fix a date
for hearing thereof and notice of such the petition and the time
and place for hearing thereof shall be served personally, at
least seven days before the hearing, upon the person who is
afflicted with tuberculosis and alleged to be dangerous to the
health of others.
(d) If, upon such hearing, it shall appear appears that the complaint of the department of bureau of public health is well
founded, that such the person is afflicted with communicable
tuberculosis, and that such person is a source of danger to
others, the court shall commit the individual to an institution
maintained for the care and treatment of persons afflicted with
tuberculosis. Such The person shall be deemed to be committed
until discharged in the manner authorized in this section.
(e) The chief medical officer of the institution to which
any such person has been committed, may discharge such that
person when in his or her judgment the person may be discharged
without danger to the health or life of others. He or she shall
report immediately to the department of bureau of public health
each such discharge.
(f) Every person committed under the provisions of this
section shall observe all the rules and regulations of the
institution. Any patient so committed may, by direction of the
chief medical officer of the institution, be placed apart from
the others and restrained from leaving the institution so long as
he or she continues to be afflicted with tuberculosis and remains
a health menace. to other people
(g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit
any person committed to any institution under the provisions
thereof from applying to the supreme court of appeals for a review of the evidence on which such the commitment was made.
Nothing in this section shall be construed or operate to empower
or authorize the state commissioner of public institutions, the
department of bureau of public health, the department of health
and human resources or chief medical officer of the institution,
or their representatives, to restrict in any manner the
individual's right to select any method of tuberculosis treatment
offered by the institution.
§26-5A-7. Procedures for immediate involuntary commitment.
(a) An application for immediate involuntary commitment of
a person suffering from tuberculosis may be filed by the
commissioner of the bureau of public health, or his or her
designee, in the circuit court of the county in which the person
resides. The application shall be filed under oath, and shall
present information and facts which establish that the person
suffering from tuberculosis in a communicable stage has been
uncooperative or irresponsible with regard to quarantine or
safety measures, presents a health menace to others, and is in
need of immediate hospitalization until his or her communicable
tuberculosis becomes non-infectious.
(b) Upon receipt of the application, the circuit court may
thereupon enter an order for the individual named in the action
to be detained and taken into custody for the purpose of holding a probable cause hearing. The order shall specify that the
hearing be held forthwith and shall appoint counsel for the
individual: Provided, That in the event immediate detention is
believed to be necessary for the protection of the individual or
others at a time when no circuit court judge is available for
immediate presentation of the application, a magistrate may
accept the application and, upon a finding that immediate
detention is necessary pending presentation of the application to
the circuit court, may order the individual to be temporarily
committed until the earliest reasonable time that the application
can be presented to the circuit court, which temporary period of
detention shall not exceed twenty-four hours.
(c) A probable cause hearing shall be held before a
magistrate or circuit judge of the county of which the individual
is a resident or where he or she was found. If requested by the
individual or his or her counsel, the hearing may be postponed
for a period not to exceed forty-eight hours.
(d) The individual shall be present at the probable cause
hearing and shall have the right to present evidence, confront
all witnesses and other evidence against him or her, and to
examine testimony offered, including testimony by the bureau of
public health or its designees.
(e) At the conclusion of the hearing the magistrate or circuit court shall find and enter an order stating whether there
is probable cause to believe that the individual is likely to
cause serious harm to himself, herself or others as a result of
his or her disease and actions. If probable cause is found, the
individual shall be immediately committed to an institution
maintained for the care and treatment of persons afflicted with
tuberculosis. The person shall remain so committed until
discharged in the manner authorized pursuant to section five of
this article.