Health officials generally may not examine or confine a person without parish judge authorization, with exceptions for certain infectious diseases and tuberculosis. Tuberculosis patients meeting the listed conditions may be held on an emergency certificate, with required examinations, review, reporting, and transfer steps.
§17. Mandatory medical examination; confinement; when allowed; emergency certificate A. Neither the state health officer or his designee, nor the parish health officer or health unit shall subject any person to any medical examination or confine him in any institution unless directed or authorized to do so by the judge of the parish in which the person is located, except when said person is infected or suspected of infection with smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, or bubonic plague, or is infected with tuberculosis. B.(1) A person who is infected with tuberculosis in an active and communicable state, who is a patient in a hospital, and who refuses treatment for tuberculosis against medical advice may be detained and held in a hospital for a period not to exceed fifteen days by an emergency certificate executed by the hospital's infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician in accordance with the procedure set forth in this Section. (2) In such case, the hospital's infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician and the patient's physician shall contact the state health officer through the nearest tuberculosis control unit or clinic of the office of public health for purposes of coordinating the patient's transfer to a state tuberculosis treatment facility pursuant to R.S. 40:31.24 within the fifteen days covered by the emergency certificate. (3) If the patient violates in any way the emergency certificate issued pursuant to this Section, it shall be deemed to be a violation of a quarantine order and shall be subject to the sanctions set forth in R.S. 40:6(B). (4) Upon expiration of the emergency certificate, the patient shall be released from the hospital, unless a court order pursuant to R.S. 40:31.24 transferring the patient to a treatment facility has been obtained. C. The following procedure shall govern the preparation and issuance of an emergency certificate for the purpose of detaining and holding a patient pursuant to the provisions of this Section: (1) The hospital's infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician, or any hospital staff physician authorized to act in the role of the infectious disease control physician for the hospital may execute an emergency certificate to detain and hold a person infected with active, infectious, and communicable tuberculosis. Thereafter, the following tasks shall be completed as soon as possible with regard to a person detained and held pursuant to an emergency certificate: (a) The infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician must personally examine the patient and confer with the patient and the patient's treating physician. (b) The patient's medical records must be reviewed by the infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician to confirm that the tuberculosis is in an active, infectious, and communicable state. (c) The infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician must find current evidence that the patient has refused to take required tuberculosis medications and that the patient desires to leave the hospital against medical advice. (d) The infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician must conclude that the patient poses a present danger to himself or herself and others if the patient should leave the hospital against medical advice. (2) The emergency certificate must state the date and hour of examination by the infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician and must be signed by the physician at such time under penalty of perjury. (3) Within a period of seventy-two hours following the execution of the emergency certificate by the hospital infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician, there must be a follow-up examination of the patient by any hospital staff physician, who shall record his or her findings in the section provided for such findings in the emergency certificate. The information provided in this Section must also state the date and hour of the follow-up examination and must be signed at that time by the physician under the penalty of perjury. If the follow-up examination confirms the initial findings of the infectious disease control physician or pulmonary disease physician, the emergency certificate shall remain in full force and effect. If after the examination it is determined that circumstances have changed, that the patient is taking the required tuberculosis medications, and that the patient no longer poses a present threat to himself or herself and others, the emergency certificate shall expire upon the examining physician's signature attesting to this fact. If no follow-up examination occurs within the seventy-two hours following the execution of the emergency certificate, the emergency certificate shall be deemed to have expired by operation of law. (4) The state health officer and the tuberculosis control unit of the office of public health shall provide all licensed public and private hospitals with emergency certificate forms and instructions for the purposes of this Section. Acts 1976, No. 346, §1; Acts 1993, No. 190, §1, eff. May 31, 1993; Acts 1997, No. 969, §1, eff. July 10, 1997.