ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 433
(By Senators Anderson, Kessler, Fanning and Ross)
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[Passed March 10, 2000; to take effect July 1, 2000.]
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AN ACT 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
medical personnel; requiring emergency medical personnel in
coal mines; emergency medical technician-mining
certification; and modifying the definitions of emergency
medical services personnel.
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.
§22A-10-1. Emergency personnel in coal mines.
(a) Emergency medical services personnel must be employed on
each shift at every mine that:
(1) Employs more than ten employees; and
(2) Has more than eight persons present on the shift.
The emergency medical services personnel must be employed at
their regular duties at a central location or, when more than one person is required pursuant to the provisions of subsection (b)
of this section, at a location which provides for convenient,
quick response to emergency. The emergency medical services
personnel must have available to them at all times such equipment
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, two thousand, emergency
medical services personnel 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, 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 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.