W. Va. Code R. § 64-59-18

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 36, September 6, 2024

Section 64-59-18 - Employee Responsibilities

18.1. Duty of All Employees. Every employee has the responsibility to assure that all rights afforded to patients by applicable state and federal laws, rules, and regulations, including this rule, are protected and afforded to patients.

18.2. Abuse and Neglect. No employee shall verbally or physically abuse or neglect any patient.

18.3. Sexual Harassment. Employees shall not engage in sexual harassment of patients.

18.4. Mandatory reporting. Every employee has a duty to report any incident of actual or suspected abuse or neglect to the administrator and to adult protective services workers.

18.5. Training of Employees. The administrator has the duty to train and educate all new employees and all current employees on a periodic and consistent basis on the content of this rule so that all employees are thoroughly familiar with it.

18.6. Staff shall be aware of W. Va. Code § 27-12-3 which reads as follows: "If any person shall entice any patient from any state hospital who has been legally committed thereto, or attempt to do so; or shall counsel, cause, influence or assist, or attempt to do so, any such patient to escape or attempt to escape therefrom or harbor or conceal any such patient who has escaped therefrom; or shall, without the permission of the superintendent of any such hospital, give or sell to any such patient, whether on the premises thereof or elsewhere, any money, firearms, drugs, cigarettes, tobacco, or any other article whatsoever; or shall receive from the hands of any such patient anything of value, whether belonging to the state or not; or shall cause or influence or attempt to cause or influence any such patient to violate any rule or to rebel against the government or discipline of such hospital; or shall tease, pester, annoy, or molest any such patient, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $10 nor more than $100, or imprisoned not exceeding six months, or, in the discretion of the court, both fined and imprisoned. If any person shall aid or abet the commission of any of the foregoing offenses, or aid or abet an attempt to commit the same, he shall be guilty of the same as if he were the principal, and be punished as above provided. In the trial of an indictment for committing any of the above-named offenses, the accused may be found guilty of an attempt to commit the same, or of aiding or abetting another in committing or in an attempt to commit the same. If any person, not her husband, shall have sexual intercourse with any female patient who is a patient of any of said state hospitals, he shall be guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than 10 nor more than 15 years; and if such female patient be under 16 years of age, he shall be imprisoned not less than 10 nor more than 20 years."

W. Va. Code R. § 64-59-18