H. B. 4422
(By Delegates Frederick, Kuhn,
Fletcher and Yeager)
[Introduced February 7, 2000; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article ten, chapter
twenty-two-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to emergency
personnel in coal mines, and updating definitions and
certifications.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article ten, chapter twenty-two-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. EMERGENCY MEDICAL PERSONNEL.
ยง22A-10-1. Emergency personnel in coal mines.
(a) Emergency medical services personnel shall be employed on
each shift at every mine that: (1) Employs more than ten employees; and (2) more than eight persons are present on the shift
Said emergency medical services personnel shall be and are employed
at their regular duties at a central location, or when more than
one such person is required pursuant to subsection (b) or (c) at
locations, convenient from for quick response to emergencies; and
further shall have available to them at all times such the
equipment as shall be prescribed by the director of the office of
miners' health, safety and training, in consultation with the
commissioner of the bureau of public health.
(b) After the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-five two thousand, emergency medical services personnel
shall be defined as a person who is certified as an emergency
medical technician-mining, emergency medical technician, emergency
medical technician-ambulance, emergency medical technician-
intermediate, mobile intensive care paramedic, emergency medical
technician-paramedic as defined in section three, article four-c,
chapter sixteen of this code, or physician assistant as defined in
section sixteen, article three, chapter thirty of this code means
any person certified by the commissioner of the bureau of public
health, or authorities recognized and approved by the commissioner,
to provide emergency medical services as authorized in article four-c, chapter sixteen of this code and including emergency
medical technician-mining. At least one emergency medical services
personnel shall be employed at a mine for every fifty employees or
any part thereof who are engaged at any time, in the extraction,
production or preparation of coal.
(c) A training course designed specifically for certification
of emergency medical technician-mining, shall be developed at the
earliest practicable time by the commissioner of the bureau of
public health in consultation with the board of miner training,
education and certification. The training course for initial
certification as an emergency medical technician-mining shall not
be less than sixty hours, which shall include, but is not limited
to, mast trouser application, basic life support skills and
emergency room observation or other equivalent practical exposure
to emergencies as prescribed by the commissioner of the bureau of
public health.
(d) The maintenance of a valid emergency medical
technician-mining certificate may be accomplished without taking a
three-year recertification examination: Provided,
That such the
emergency medical technician-mining personnel completes an eight
hour annual retraining and testing program prescribed by the commissioner of the bureau of public health in consultation with
the board of miner training, education and certification.
(e) All emergency medical services personnel currently
certified as emergency medical service attendants or emergency
medical technicians shall receive certification as emergency
medical technicians without further training and examination for
the remainder of their three-year certification period; such
emergency medical service attendant or emergency medical technician
may upon expiration of such certification become certified as an
emergency medical technician-mining upon completion of the eight
hour retraining program referred to in subsection (d) above.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
adopt the definition of
"emergency medical service personnel" utilized by the Office of
Emergency Medical Services and to delete other outdated
certification references.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.