54.1-2970 - Medical treatment for certain persons incapable of giving informed consent.
§ 54.1-2970. Medical treatment for certain persons incapable of givinginformed consent.
When a delay in treatment might adversely affect recovery, a licensed healthprofessional or licensed hospital shall not be subject to liability arisingout of a claim based on lack of informed consent or be prohibited fromproviding surgical, medical or dental treatment to an individual who is apatient or resident of a hospital or facility operated by the Department ofBehavioral Health and Developmental Services or to a consumer who isreceiving case management services from a community services board orbehavioral health authority and who is incapable of giving informed consentto the treatment by reason of mental illness or mental retardation under thefollowing conditions:
1. No legally authorized guardian or committee was available to give consent;
2. A reasonable effort is made to advise a parent or other next of kin of theneed for the surgical, medical or dental treatment;
3. No reasonable objection is raised by or on behalf of the allegedincapacitated person; and
4. Two physicians, or in the case of dental treatment, two dentists or onedentist and one physician, state in writing that they have made a good faitheffort to explain the necessary treatment to the individual, and they haveprobable cause to believe that the individual is incapacitated and unable toconsent to the treatment by reason of mental illness or mental retardationand that delay in treatment might adversely affect recovery.
The provisions of this section shall apply only to the treatment of physicalinjury or illness and not to any treatment for a mental, emotional orpsychological condition.
Treatment pursuant to this section of an individual's mental, emotional orpsychological condition when the individual is unable to make an informeddecision and when no legally authorized guardian or committee is available toprovide consent shall be governed by regulations promulgated by the StateBoard of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services under § 37.2-400.
(Code 1950, § 32-137.01; 1979, c. 212, § 54-325.2:1; 1988, c. 765; 1989, c.591; 1997, c. 801; 2002, c. 80; 2009, cc. 813, 840.)