SB529 SUB2
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 529
(By Senators Wooton, Bailey, Walker and Macnaughtan)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 1, 1996.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections two and 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 or its designee 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' uncooperative behavior;
authorizing magistrate to accept application in certain
circumstances; permitting immediate detention for specified
period of time; permitting postponement of hearing for specified period of time; requiring immediate commitment upon
finding of probable cause that the person is likely to cause
serious harm to him or herself or others; and eliminating or
updating obsolete references.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two and 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-2. Forms for committing patients; other records.
The state commissioner of public institutions bureau of public
health or its designee shall have authority is authorized in
consultation with the superintendents of the tuberculosis
institutions, to prepare, prescribe, and have printed forms to be
used in committing patients to any state tuberculosis institution.
For each patient there shall be kept a case record with such
complete information as to aid in qualifying all state tuberculosis
institutions for the training of interns and nurses with a
specialty in tuberculosis.
Whenever a patient is transferred form one state tuberculosis
institution to another, his complete record shall be forwarded to
the institution to which the patient is being transferred.
§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 or an authorized designee thereof, 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 or its designee which shall
forthwith investigate or have investigated the circumstances
alleged.
(b) If it the bureau of public health or its designee shall
find finds that any such person's physical condition is a health
menace to others, the department of bureau of public health or its
designee 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 or its designee 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 or its
designee is well founded, that such the person is afflicted with
communicable tuberculosis, and that such the 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 afflicted with tuberculosis 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 The chief medical officer shall report immediately to the
department of bureau of public health or its designee each such
discharge of a person afflicted with tuberculosis.
(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 may be construed to
prohibit any person committed to any institution under the
provisions thereof of this section 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 may 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 an authorized
designee thereof or the 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, except as provided for in subsection (c) of this
section.
(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.
(f) The bureau if public health shall promulgate rules
pursuant to the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a
of this code necessary to implement the provisions of this article,
including, but not limited to, rules relating to the transport and
temporary involuntary commitment of patients.