Chapter 16, Chapter 16

The state director of health or any county or municipal health officer shall inquire into and investigate all nuisances affecting the public health within his jurisdiction; and the said director or any such officer or the county commission of any county or any municipality is aut…

The cost of maintenance and treatment of patients admitted to state designated tuberculosis institutions shall be paid out of funds appropriated for the respective institutions. No patient shall be required to pay for such maintenance and treatment, but the institutions are autho…

(a) If any practicing physician, public health officer, or chief medical officer having under observation or care any person with tuberculosis is of the opinion that the environmental conditions of that person are not suitable for proper isolation or control by any type of local …

(a) The commissioner of the bureau shall immediately implement and enforce the provisions of this article, and shall adopt rules to the extent necessary for further implementation of the article. The rules proposed by the bureau pursuant to this article may include procedures for…

If any person confined in a state tuberculosis institution by virtue of an order of a circuit court as provided in sections seven and nine of this article shall escape, the chief medical officer shall issue a notice giving the name and description of the person escaping and reque…

(a) An application for immediate involuntary commitment of a person with tuberculosis may be filed by the Commissioner or local health officer, in the circuit court of the county in which the person resides. The application shall be filed under oath, and shall present information…

Any person may, in contemplation of elective surgery or other elective medical procedures for which a blood transfusion may be required, request the health care provider conducting such surgery or medical procedure, or any private, public or nonprofit blood bank, to make or cause…

This article shall be known as the "Emergency Medical Services Act of 1996".

In case of the death of any person in the State of West Virginia, except those deaths subject to autopsy being made pursuant to section ten, article twelve, chapter sixty-one of this code, the attending physician, or if there be none, any physician, if he or she deems it advisabl…

Every pregnant woman, resident in West Virginia, shall have a blood sample taken and submitted to the West Virginia state hygienic laboratory or other laboratory approved by the state department of health where there shall be performed thereon a standard serologic test for syphil…

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings: (1) "Department" means the Department of Health. (2) "Expedited partner therapy" means prescribing, dispensing, furnishing or otherwise providing prescription antibio…

The Legislature finds that there is a need for a more comprehensive and uniform approach to any screening conducted by physicians and midwives to discover at-risk and high-risk pregnancies. A uniform approach would simplify the process, standardize the procedure and better identi…

(a) The West Virginia Legislature hereby finds and declares that each year more than two hundred fifty thousand Americans die from out-of-hospital incidents of sudden cardiac arrest. More than ninety-five percent of these incidents result in death and, in many cases, death occurs…

Sexually transmitted diseases, as designated by the secretary of the Department of Health in rules proposed for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, are declared to be infectious, contagious, communicable and…

Hearings are governed by the provisions of §29A-5-1 et seq. of this code.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any licensed physician may examine, diagnose, or treat any minor with his or her consent for any venereal disease without the knowledge or consent of the minor's parent or guardian. The physician shall not incur any civil or criminal li…

Any patient who receives an emergency medical service and who is unable to give his or her consent to or contract for the service, whether or not he or she has agreed or consented to liability for the service, shall be liable in implied contract to the entity providing the emerge…

Whenever any attending physician or other person knows or has good reasons to believe that any person having a sexually transmitted disease is conducting himself or herself, or is about to conduct himself or herself, in a manner as to expose other persons to infection, the physic…

(a) When, as a result of an investigation under this article or otherwise, the commissioner or director has reason to believe that a licensee or certificate holder has committed a criminal offense, the commissioner or director may bring the information to the attention of an appr…

Where a venereal disease report shows the person is suffering with such disease in an infectious stage, and is not under treatment, the local health officer shall at once investigate and ascertain whether such person so reported is conducting so as to expose others to infection, …

Whenever it appears to the commissioner that any person has been or is violating or is about to violate any provision of this article or any final order of the commissioner, the commissioner may apply in the name of the state, to the circuit court of the county in which the viola…

Whenever it shall appear from any venereal disease report made by a physician, or other person, or otherwise, or whenever other reasonable facts are brought to the attention of any local health officer having proper jurisdiction which show that any hotel, boardinghouse, rooming h…

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, emergency medical service personnel may provide the services as determined by the commissioner by legislative rule pursuant to the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code. Legislative rules governing provision of…

Upon receipt of a written report or of any other reliable information by the local health officer that any person infected with a venereal disease in an infectious stage is conducting himself or herself, or is about to conduct himself or herself, so as to infect others, or expose…

(a) In the event of a communications failure between the certified emergency medical services agency personnel, as defined in section three of this article, and the physician during an emergency situation, the certified personnel is authorized to deliver the services as authorize…

(a) Any warrant or order issued pursuant to the provisions of section fourteen of this article shall be directed to the chief of police if within a municipality, or to the county sheriff if not in a municipality or to any other officer qualified to execute process, directing the …

(a) Every person, corporation, ambulance service, emergency medical service provider, emergency ambulance authority, emergency ambulance service or other person which employs emergency medical service personnel with or without wages for ambulance service or provides ambulance ser…

When a party is brought in for a hearing upon arrest under the warrant provided in the preceding section, the health officer shall at once proceed to ascertain the facts in the case, and to this end he may summon witnesses, and administer oaths to such witnesses touching their te…

No emergency medical service personnel may be subject to civil liability, based solely upon failure to obtain consent in rendering emergency medical services to any individual regardless of age where the patient is unable to give his or her consent for any reason, including minor…

If as a result of the tests and examination provided to be made in the preceding section, it is shown that the party so examined is suffering with a venereal disease, not in an infectious state, said party may be released from further detention upon signing the agreement herein r…

When any department, agency or entity which provides emergency medical services under the authority of this article is responding to, operating at or returning from an emergency medical service, any emergency medical service personnel serving in the capacity of an emergency medic…

It shall be unlawful for any person having a venereal disease in an infectious stage to be engaged as a barber in any barbershop in the state, or to be engaged in any capacity in any bakery in the state, or to be employed at any hotel, restaurant, eating house, lunch counter, or …

(a) It is unlawful for any person to intentionally obstruct or interfere with any emergency medical service agency personnel engaged in the act of delivering or administering emergency medical services. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection is guilty of a misdeme…

(a)(1) Any person may report to any municipal or county health department and voluntarily submit himself or herself to all tests and examinations necessary to ascertain whether he or she is infected with a sexually transmitted disease; and the health department shall conduct and …

The Legislature finds and declares: (1) That the safe and efficient operation of life-saving and life-preserving emergency medical service to meet the needs of citizens of this state is a matter of general public interest and concern; (2) to ensure the provision of adequate emerg…

Every physician engaging in attendance upon a pregnant woman in West Virginia shall, as soon as he or she is engaged to attend a woman and has reasonable grounds for suspecting that pregnancy exists, acquaint such woman with the provisions of this article and take or cause to be …

(a) All municipal and county health officers shall: (1) Use every available means to ascertain the existence of, and to investigate all cases of sexually transmitted disease coming within their respective jurisdictions and, when it is necessary, have all cases treated, if they ar…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a health care professional who makes a clinical diagnosis of a sexually transmitted disease may provide expedited partner therapy for the treatment of the sexually transmitted disease if, in the judgment of the healt…

(a) There is created within the Office of Maternal, Child and Family Health an advisory council on maternal risk assessment to provide assistance in the development of a uniform maternal risk screening tool. (b) The office shall convene the advisory council at least annually and …

(a) "Anticipated operator" means any person trained in accordance with section three of this article who utilizes an automated external defibrillator which was placed through an early defibrillation program. (b) "Automated external defibrillator", hereinafter referred to as AED, …

Any persons or entities providing lawful emergency medical services under the provisions of this article are hereby authorized in their discretion to enter into and renew service reciprocity agreements, for any period as they may deem advisable, with the appropriate emergency med…

It shall be unlawful for any person suffering with an infectious venereal disease to perform any act which exposes another person to infection with said disease, or knowingly to infect or expose another person to infection with such disease; and no physician, health officer or ot…

The commissioner may issue an order on his or her own motion upon written request of any emergency medical service provider or county commission in this state, to restrict an out-of-state provider of emergency medical services or an out-of-state emergency medical service personne…

In establishing quarantine for a venereal disease under the provisions of this article, the health officer establishing said quarantine may confine any person infected, or reasonably suspected of having such venereal disease, or any other person liable to spread such disease, to …

(a) Emergency medical service personnel shall transport critically ill or injured, unconscious or otherwise uncommunicative patients to the medical facility designated by the medical command physician. (b) No person may have the right to direct emergency medical service personnel…

It shall be the duty of every physician or other person in the state who proposes to treat or does treat venereal diseases herein, to file with the director of the bureau of venereal diseases of the state, upon a blank to be furnished by said director, a statement showing somethi…

All costs and expenses necessary to reasonably carry out the provisions of this article, touching the care, custody, detention, and treatment of persons coming within the purview of its provisions, shall be a general charge against the municipalities or counties, as the case may …

(a) The commissioner shall propose for promulgation, legislative rules pursuant to §29A-3-1 et seq. of this code to carry out the purposes of this article. (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of §16-4C-6(a) of this code, the commissioner shall propose for promulgation a legislativ…

(a) No druggist, pharmacist or other person, not a licensed physician under the laws of the state, may prescribe, recommend, sell, compound or mix any drugs, medicines or other substances to be used for the cure or alleviation of a sexually transmitted disease, including drugs, m…

(a) There is continued in the State Treasury a special revenue fund to be known as the Emergency Medical Services Equipment and Training Fund. Expenditures from the fund by the Office of Emergency Medical Services and Bureau for Public Health, are authorized from collections. The…