P.R. Laws tit. 8, § 1006c-1
The person who holds office as the Medical Director of any municipality of the Island, or the corresponding mayor, in coordination with a physician authorized to practice medicine in Puerto Rico, is hereby empowered to act in emergency situations and after the person affected gives his/her consent, to provide assistance or medical attention, authorize the transport and accompany the person to a medical hospital facility, when the patient is a homeless person within the mayor’s jurisdiction, whose life is in imminent danger due to his/her critical and failing state of physical health, subject to the following conditions:
(a) The assistance, attention and/or transfer shall be subject to the approval and consent of the affected homeless person.
In situations in which the person is unable to give his/her consent due to disability or unconsciousness, his/her transfer to a medical hospital institution may be authorized without his/her previous consent.
(b) The health emergency assessment shall be certified by a physician authorized to practice in Puerto Rico. If the municipality does not have a medical director, the mayor shall be empowered to request that a physician authorized to practice medicine in Puerto Rico accompany the homeless person to a medical hospital institution and to offer the attention and/or arrange for his/her transport as necessary.
(c) The municipality shall notify the person in charge or a close relative, when these are known, within a term not to exceed twelve (12) hours from the time the patient is transported to a healthcare facility. Furthermore, the Executive Director of the Homeless Population Service Program Liaison and Coordination Office and the Advocate for Patients shall be notified within a term not to exceed twelve (12) hours from the time of admission into a hospital.
(d) The Executive Director of the Homeless Population Service Program Liaison and Coordination Office shall be responsible for coordinating and following up on the services that Council member agencies must provide to patients in terms of emergency shelter; transitory and permanent housing; daytime lodgings; drug and alcohol detoxification and treatment; meals, nutrition, hygiene, clothing, and access to sanitary facilities and showers; primary and specialized physical and mental health services; legal representation and support; police and court protection; information and guidance about their rights as citizens; social assistance; education and training; job placement; opportunities to develop business venture capabilities geared toward the production of financial income for self-sufficiency; family reunification; and/or any other service within the Council members” competence.
(e) The government entities that are Council members shall adjust their respective regulations and procedures with the provisions herein.
(f) The physician, as well as the Medical Director, as the case may be, who provides attention or assistance or who issues a request for transfer and accompanies a homeless person to a medical hospital institution shall strictly comply with the provisions of §§ 6152 et seq. of Title 24, known as the “Mental Health Code of 2000”, in cases that involve mental health issues.
History —Sept. 27, 2007, No. 130, added as § 6 on Feb. 18, 2011, No. 8, § 1.