Massachusetts Statutes

Section 74. Any town not maintaining or managing a hospital may annually appropriate a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars, to be paid to a hospital established in such town or in the vicinity thereof, for the establishment and maintenance of a free bed in the hospital for the…

Section 75. Whoever occupies or uses a building for a hospital in a part of a town prohibited by the aldermen or selectmen shall forfeit not more than fifty dollars for every month of such occupancy or use and in like proportion for a shorter time. The supreme judicial or superio…

Section 77. The department shall have responsibility for providing hospital care and treatment for all persons resident in the commonwealth suffering from tuberculosis and who need such hospital care. Such care and treatment may be made available in hospitals within the departmen…

Section 78. Where county institutions are utilized for providing such care and treatment, the department is authorized to enter into a contract with the county commissioners of the respective counties upon terms satisfactory to the contracting parties under which the county insti…

Section 78A. The trustees of a county tuberculosis hospital may admit as patients in said hospital persons who are suffering from chronic disease; provided, that sufficient beds are at all times available for persons with tuberculosis who are eligible for admission to said hospit…

Section 79. The department shall have supervision and control of all admissions, transfers, and discharges of tuberculous patients in hospitals within the department or in other hospitals under contract with the department under sections seventy-seven and seventy-eight. The depar…

Section 8. In order to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, the department may prohibit in hotels and in such public places, vehicles or buildings as it may designate the providing of a common drinking cup or a common towel, and may establish rules and regulations for thi…

Section 80. Each city and town shall pay to the commonwealth its share of the cost of providing general health supplies, care, services and accommodations for any tuberculosis patient resident in such city or town hospitalized under section 78 or section 79 a sum equal to one-hal…

Section 81. The department shall have responsibility for conducting programs aimed at controlling and eradicating tuberculosis in the commonwealth. It may establish, foster, and give such aid and assistance as it deems necessary for the establishment and maintenance of out-patien…

Section 81A. No ordinance, by-law, rule or regulation of a board of health or the requirements of any public or private institution, school or college shall be enacted, promulgated, or continued in effect which would require a chest x-ray examination to show freedom from tubercul…

Section 82. The county commissioners may operate and maintain a hospital for purposes as indicated in this section. Where the county commissioners or trustees of such hospital determine that they will provide care and treatment for tuberculous patients and they enter into a contr…

Section 83. Where a county or municipal institution is operating for the care and treatment of tuberculosis patients and the county commissioners or officers in charge of the municipal institution determine that it is no longer feasible to continue the institution as a county or …

Section 83A. The county commissioners of any county, acting as trustees of a hospital established therein under section eighty-two may effect insurance providing indemnity for or protection to the officers and employees of such hospital against loss by reason of their liability t…

Section 83B. County commissioners in carrying out their responsibilities as trustees of county institutions under section eighty-two shall raise and expend such sums of money for acquiring land and constructing and equipping buildings including out-patient and diagnostic faciliti…

Section 85. The county commissioners shall provide for the maintenance, operation and repair of the institutions under section eighty-two provided that the expenditure of money for the purposes of this section shall be limited to such amounts as may be authorized by the various a…

Section 85A. To provide such funds as may be necessary to meet the cost of the care, maintenance and repair of a county institution in compliance with section eighty-five, the county commissioners may in any year borrow money on the credit of the county by temporary loans without…

Section 86. Subject to section eight-four, county commissioners may purchase, lease, or take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, such land, not exceeding five hundred acres, as they may deem necessary or convenient for the purposes set forth in section seventy-eight.

Section 87. The county commissioners shall be trustees of the institutions operated under section eighty-two except in Norfolk county where there shall be seven trustees consisting of: the three Norfolk county commissioners, the chairperson of the Norfolk county advisory board or…

Section 88. Where, at the time this section goes into effect, a city or town is maintaining a tuberculosis hospital and such hospital is not utilized by the commonwealth for the care and treatment of tuberculosis patients under contractual arrangements under section seventy-seven…

Section 8A. The department shall make such rules and regulations concerning the disposal or discard of containers of poisonous substances and concerning the closures of containers of corrosive substances intended for household use as it shall deem necessary for the protection of …

Section 8C. The department in taking cognizance of the dental health of the people in the commonwealth shall recommend such methods as in its opinion are advisable to reduce or limit the prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases and defects. If the commissioner determ…

Section 9. In the performance of the duties relative to the sale of drugs and food the commissioner may appoint and remove inspectors, analysts and chemists. Such inspectors shall, in addition to the powers given by sections one hundred and twenty-one to one hundred and twenty-th…

Section 91. Cities having one hundred thousand or more inhabitants as determined by the last national census, and cities and towns having less than one hundred thousand inhabitants as determined as aforesaid and already possessing and continuing to furnish satisfactory tuberculos…

Section 91C. Whenever, in the opinion of the board or officer in charge of a tuberculosis hospital maintained by a city or town, the entire facilities of such hospital are no longer needed for the treatment and care of persons in said city or town suffering from pulmonary tubercu…

Section 92. Each city shall, and each town may, and upon request of the department shall, establish and maintain constantly within its limits one or more hospitals for the reception of persons having smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, or other diseases dangerous to the public h…

Section 93. Physicians, nurses, attendants, patients and all persons approaching or coming within the limits of such hospitals, and all furniture and other articles used or brought there, shall be subject to the regulations of the board of health.

Section 94. The board of health of any town which has established or which may hereafter establish within its limits a hospital for the reception of persons having smallpox or any other disease dangerous to the public health may receive for care and treatment in such hospital per…

Section 94A. (a) The board of health of any city or town, or any member thereof, or two physicians licensed to practice medicine in the commonwealth, may certify to the commissioner any non-hospitalized person who (1) is afflicted with active tuberculosis, (2) is unwilling or una…

Section 94B. If any active tuberculosis patient in a municipal, county, state or private sanatorium or hospital indicates his desire to leave the institution against the medical advice of the superintendent or manager of the institution in accord with the accepted medical policy …

Section 94C. Any justice or associate justice of the district court may commit to the tuberculosis treatment center established under section ninety-four D, for prolonged hospitalization, any person afflicted with active tuberculosis and residing in or present in the jurisdiction…

Section 94D. The department shall establish a tuberculosis treatment center in one of the state hospitals, or may contract with a county, municipal or general hospital for the custody, care, treatment and rehabilitation of patients hospitalized under sections ninety-four A to nin…

Section 94E. The full financial responsibility for the care and treatment of patients hospitalized at the tuberculosis treatment center shall be on the commonwealth. The placing of such financial responsibility on the commonwealth for the patients shall in no way affect the resid…

Section 94F. Any person hospitalized at the treatment center may be discharged therefrom by the superintendent at any time he determines that it is in the best interest of the patient and of the public health so to do. The superintendent may also declassify the patient as under t…

Section 94G. Any person hospitalized at the treatment center may petition the district court which committed him to release him therefrom. Such petition shall not be made until six months after the original court commitment. If such petition is denied, another such petition shall…

Section 94H. The commissioner and the public health council may make regulations concerning the content of the certification made by boards of health and physicians under section ninety-four A, including the definition of, and the methods for determining active tuberculosis. The …

Section 95. If a disease dangerous to the public health breaks out in a town, or if a person is infected or lately has been infected therewith, the board of health shall immediately provide such hospital or place of reception and such nurses and other assistance and necessaries a…

Section 96. A magistrate authorized to issue warrants may issue a warrant directed to the sheriff of the county or his deputy, or to any constable or police officer, requiring him, under the direction of the board of health, to remove any person infected with a disease dangerous …

Section 96A. No town shall transport or permit to be transported to another town any person infected with a disease dangerous to the public health, without first obtaining the assent of the board of health of the town to which the patient is to be transported; but this requiremen…

Section 97. Sections ninety-five and ninety-six, so far as they confer authority for the removal of patients from their homes, shall apply only to persons residing in boarding houses or hotels, or to two or more families occupying the same dwelling, or in other cases where, in th…

Section 98. Boards of health may grant permits for the removal of any nuisance, infected articles or sick person within the limits of their towns.

Section 99. If upon application of the board it appears to a magistrate authorized to issue warrants that there is just cause to suspect that baggage, clothing or goods found within the town are infected with any disease dangerous to the public health, he shall, by warrant direct…

Section 1. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Alcoholism Treatment and Rehabilitation Law.

Section 10. Any person under the age of eighteen who is a patient at a facility, pursuant to section seven, or held in protective custody at a police station pursuant to section eight shall, upon request of his parent or guardian, be released to the custody of said parent or guar…

Section 11. The administrator of each facility shall keep a record of the treatment afforded each patient, which shall be confidential and shall be made available only upon proper judicial order, whether in connection with pending judicial proceedings or otherwise. Any patient sh…

Section 12. The commonwealth, the several counties, cities and towns, subject to appropriation, may establish service forces to perform the function of the police in accordance with the provisions of section eight. Such service forces may be a part of a police department, the dep…

Section 13. Police officers, facility administrators or other persons acting in a reasonable manner and pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall not be held criminally or civilly liable for such acts.