26-1-30 - Powers and duties of department.
26-1-30. Powers and duties of department.
(1) The department shall:
(a) enter into cooperative agreements with the Department of Environmental Quality todelineate specific responsibilities to assure that assessment and management of risk to humanhealth from the environment are properly administered; and
(b) consult with the Department of Environmental Quality and enter into cooperativeagreements, as needed, to ensure efficient use of resources and effective response to potentialhealth and safety threats from the environment, and to prevent gaps in protection from potentialrisks from the environment to specific individuals or population groups.
(2) In addition to all other powers and duties of the department, it shall have and exercisethe following powers and duties:
(a) promote and protect the health and wellness of the people within the state;
(b) establish, maintain, and enforce rules necessary or desirable to carry out theprovisions and purposes of this title to promote and protect the public health or to prevent diseaseand illness;
(c) investigate and control the causes of epidemic, infectious, communicable, and otherdiseases affecting the public health;
(d) provide for the detection, reporting, prevention, and control of communicable,infectious, acute, chronic, or any other disease or health hazard which the department considersto be dangerous, important, or likely to affect the public health;
(e) collect and report information on causes of injury, sickness, death, and disability andthe risk factors that contribute to the causes of injury, sickness, death, and disability within thestate;
(f) collect, prepare, publish, and disseminate information to inform the public concerningthe health and wellness of the population, specific hazards, and risks that may affect the healthand wellness of the population and specific activities which may promote and protect the healthand wellness of the population;
(g) establish and operate programs necessary or desirable for the promotion or protectionof the public health and the control of disease or which may be necessary to ameliorate the majorcauses of injury, sickness, death, and disability in the state, except that the programs may not beestablished if adequate programs exist in the private sector;
(h) establish, maintain, and enforce isolation and quarantine, and for this purpose only,exercise physical control over property and individuals as the department finds necessary for theprotection of the public health;
(i) close theaters, schools, and other public places and forbid gatherings of people whennecessary to protect the public health;
(j) abate nuisances when necessary to eliminate sources of filth and infectious andcommunicable diseases affecting the public health;
(k) make necessary sanitary and health investigations and inspections in cooperation withlocal health departments as to any matters affecting the public health;
(l) establish laboratory services necessary to support public health programs and medicalservices in the state;
(m) establish and enforce standards for laboratory services which are provided by anylaboratory in the state when the purpose of the services is to protect the public health;
(n) cooperate with the Labor Commission to conduct studies of occupational health
hazards and occupational diseases arising in and out of employment in industry, and makerecommendations for elimination or reduction of the hazards;
(o) cooperate with the local health departments, the Department of Corrections, theAdministrative Office of the Courts, the Division of Juvenile Justice Services, and the CrimeVictim Reparations Board to conduct testing for HIV infection of convicted sexual offenders andany victims of a sexual offense;
(p) investigate the cause of maternal and infant mortality;
(q) establish, maintain, and enforce a procedure requiring the blood of adult pedestriansand drivers of motor vehicles killed in highway accidents be examined for the presence andconcentration of alcohol;
(r) provide the commissioner of public safety with monthly statistics reflecting the resultsof the examinations provided for in Subsection (2)(q) and provide safeguards so that informationderived from the examinations is not used for a purpose other than the compilation of statisticsauthorized in this Subsection (2)(r);
(s) establish qualifications for individuals permitted to draw blood pursuant to Section41-6a-523, and to issue permits to individuals it finds qualified, which permits may be terminatedor revoked by the department;
(t) establish a uniform public health program throughout the state which includescontinuous service, employment of qualified employees, and a basic program of disease control,vital and health statistics, sanitation, public health nursing, and other preventive health programsnecessary or desirable for the protection of public health;
(u) adopt rules and enforce minimum sanitary standards for the operation andmaintenance of:
(i) orphanages;
(ii) boarding homes;
(iii) summer camps for children;
(iv) lodging houses;
(v) hotels;
(vi) restaurants and all other places where food is handled for commercial purposes, sold,or served to the public;
(vii) tourist and trailer camps;
(viii) service stations;
(ix) public conveyances and stations;
(x) public and private schools;
(xi) factories;
(xii) private sanatoria;
(xiii) barber shops;
(xiv) beauty shops;
(xv) physicians' offices;
(xvi) dentists' offices;
(xvii) workshops;
(xviii) industrial, labor, or construction camps;
(xix) recreational resorts and camps;
(xx) swimming pools, public baths, and bathing beaches;
(xxi) state, county, or municipal institutions, including hospitals and other buildings,
centers, and places used for public gatherings; and
(xxii) of any other facilities in public buildings and on public grounds;
(v) conduct health planning for the state;
(w) monitor the costs of health care in the state and foster price competition in the healthcare delivery system;
(x) adopt rules for the licensure of health facilities within the state pursuant to Title 26,Chapter 21, Health Care Facility Licensing and Inspection Act;
(y) license the provision of child care;
(z) accept contributions to and administer the funds contained in the Organ DonationContribution Fund created in Section 26-18b-101; and
(aa) serve as the collecting agent, on behalf of the state, for the nursing care facilityassessment fee imposed under Title 26, Chapter 35a, Nursing Care Facility Assessment Act, andadopt rules for the enforcement and administration of the nursing facility assessment consistentwith the provisions of Title 26, Chapter 35a.
Amended by Chapter 339, 2008 General Session