H. B. 2273

         (By Delegate Caputo (By Request))

         [Introduced January 11, 2012

; referred to the

Committee on Energy, Industry and Labor, Economic Development and Small Business then the Judiciary.]

A BILL to amend and reenact §22A-10-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to requiring paramedics to be on site at coal mines.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That §22A-10-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, 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 and paramedics 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 for 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. Paramedic means any person certified as an emergency medical technician-paramedic by the Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health. At least one emergency medical services personnel and one paramedic 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 for 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 may 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 for 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 for Public Health in consultation with the board of Miner Training, Education and Certification.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require paramedics to be on site at coal mines.

    Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.