§ 1057 - Medical management - Vermont Statutes

§ 1057. Medical management

(a) When the commissioner of health determines, as a result of an examination as provided by sections 1055 and 1056 of this title, that any person is afflicted with tuberculosis in an active stage and in communicable form to an extent that the person may expose other persons or the public generally to danger of infection, he shall investigate the circumstances thereof and if he finds that the person does constitute a health hazard to the public, he may request the court to order the person to a hospital or other suitable place and require appropriate medical management of the person therein until he determines that the management is no longer necessary. Such medical care and treatment as the commissioner of health considers necessary and proper may be furnished to the sick person at the expense of the state. Treatment shall not be imposed on any person against his will unless the commissioner determines that the person constitutes a public health hazard without such treatment.

(b) Nothing in sections 1055 to 1061 of this title shall be construed to compel any person who is being treated by prayer or spiritual means alone in accordance with the tenets and practice of a well recognized church or religious denomination by a duly accredited practitioner to be medically managed in a place to which he objects as long as suitable healing methods or isolation can be maintained in a place of his own choosing, provided that he does not constitute a public health hazard as determined by the commissioner, and that all sanitation rules and regulations are complied with. (1967, No. 49, § 3; amended 1973, No. 89, § 5.)