§33-1-21 Emergency services. - West Virginia Statutes

§33-1-21. Emergency services.
(a) Emergency services are: Those services provided in or by a hospital emergency facility, an ambulance providing related services under the provisions of article four-c, chapter sixteen of this code or the private office of a dentist to evaluate and treat a medical condition manifesting itself by the sudden, and at the time, unexpected onset of symptoms that require immediate medical attention and that failure to provide medical attention would result in serious impairment to bodily function, serious dysfunction to any bodily organ or part, or would place the person's health in jeopardy.

(b) From the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, the following provisions apply:

(1) "Emergency medical services" means those services required to screen for or treat an emergency medical condition until the condition is stabilized, including prehospital care;

(2) "Prudent layperson" means a person who is without medical training and who draws on his or her practical experience when making a decision regarding whether an emergency medical condition exists for which emergency treatment should be sought;

(3) "Emergency medical condition for the prudent layperson" means one that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity, including severe pain, such that the person could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in serious jeopardy to the individual's health, or, with respect to a pregnant woman, the health of the unborn child; serious impairment to bodily functions; or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part;

(4) "Stabilize" means with respect to an emergency medical condition, to provide medical treatment of the condition necessary to assure, with reasonable medical probability that no medical deterioration of the condition is likely to result from or occur during the transfer of the individual from a facility: Provided, That this provision may not be construed to prohibit, limit or otherwise delay the transportation required for a higher level of care than that possible at the treating facility;

(5) "Medical screening examination" means an appropriate examination within the capability of the hospital's emergency department, including ancillary services routinely available to the emergency department, to determine whether or not an emergency medical condition exists; and

(6) "Emergency medical condition" means a condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity including severe pain such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in serious jeopardy to the individual's health or with respect to a pregnant woman the health of the unborn child, serious impairment to bodily functions or serious dysfunction of any bodily part or organ.