ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 442
(Senators Walker, Helmick, Anderson,
Bailey, Plymale and Ross, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 9, 1995; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend article two, chapter sixty-one of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated
section twenty-seven-a, relating to required reporting of
burns.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article two, chapter sixty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-seven-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-27a. Required reporting of burns.
(a) Any health care provider who examines or renders
medical treatment to a person suffering from an injury caused by a burn resulting from fire or a chemical, where the
circumstances under which the examination is made or treatment
is rendered, or where the condition of the injury gives the
health care provider reasonable cause to suspect that the
injury occurred during the commission, or attempted commission,
of an arson as defined in article three of this chapter, shall
report the same to the office of the state fire marshal. A
written report shall be made by the provider, or by an employee
or agent of the provider at the direction of the provider, to
the office of the state fire marshal within forty-eight hours
after the initial report: Provided, That where two or more
health care providers participate in the examination or
treatment of such injury, the obligation to report imposed by
this section applies only to the attending physician or, if
none, to the person primarily responsible for providing medical
treatment for the injury.
(b) Any health care provider who in good faith makes or
causes to be made a report pursuant to subsection (a) of this
section is immune from any civil liability which may otherwise
arise as the result of making such report.
(c) Within available funding and as may be determined necessary by the state fire marshal, the state fire marshal
shall conduct educational programs for persons required to
report injuries under this section.