P.R. Laws tit. 8, § 346l
Any Commonwealth or municipal police officer, social technician or worker especially designated by the Department, official designated by the Office of Elderly Affairs, attached to the Office of the Governor, official of the Commonwealth Emergency Management and Disaster Administration Office, any physician or other health professional that has an elderly person under treatment, shall assume emergency custody, even when the elderly person is under the temporary or permanent care of a tutor or a person responsible for his or her well-being, when the following circumstances occur, as they may apply[:]
(a) He or she learns or believes that there is a risk for the safety, health and bodily, mental, emotional and/or moral integrity of the elderly person.
(b) The tutor or person responsible for the welfare of the elderly person are not accessible or do not consent the removal of the elderly person, this only in the case that the elderly person is under the temporary or permanent care of any of these.
The person in charge of a hospital or a similar medical institution shall assume emergency custody of an elderly person when he or she learns or believes that the latter has been a victim of abuse, institutional abuse, abuse by negligence and/or abuse by institutional negligence; when he or she understands that the facts so warrant, even if no additional medical treatment is required, even if the tutor or the persons responsible for the welfare of the elderly person request that he or she be returned.
The person assuming emergency custody of an elderly person shall take the latter to the place previously designated for this purpose by the Department of the Family.
Any person assuming emergency custody of an elderly person shall report such a fact immediately through the “Golden Hotline”.
The emergency custody referred to in this section may not exceed twenty-four (24) hours, except in the cases on which an authorization from the court is procured and obtained.
No emergency custody shall or may be assumed in violation of the rights of the elderly person. The elderly person, provided he or she is fully mentally competent and/or unless there is a medical or legal order that so warrants, shall be heard and tended to in relation to his or her interest and wish of being protected.
History —July 12, 1986, No. 121, p. 389, added as § 10 on Dec. 17, 2003, No. 305, § 4.