Subject

Service of Communicable Disease Removal and Detention Orders

June 26, 1986

 

The purpose of this order is to establish policy and procedures for handling cases involving communicable and preventable diseases, and the transportation to courts and hospitals, under Title 6 of the District of Columbia Code. This order consists of the following parts:

 

PART I Responsibilities and Procedures for

Members of the Department

 

A.      Removal and Detention Orders.

B.      Service of Removal and Detention Orders.

                               C. Providing Transportation.

                               D. Precautionary Measures.

           PART II       Responsibilities and Procedures for

                               Special Assignment Personnel

 

A.      Station Clerks.

B.      Dispatchers.

 

PART III Responsibilities and Procedures for

Supervisory and Command Personnel

 

A.      Commanding Officers.

B.      Director, Identification and Records Division.

 

PART I

 

A.       Removal and Detention Orders.

 

1.       Whenever the Commissioner of Public Health has probable cause to believe that any person is affected with any communicable disease or is a carrier of a communicable disease and that the continuance of such person in the place where he/she may be is likely to be dangerous to the lives or health of other persons, he may, by written order, direct the removal and detention of such per­son.

 

a.        The removal and transportation shall be handled by a designated officer or employee of the Department of Human Services or by a member of the Metropolitan Police Department.

 

b.       The detention of such person shall be in a place or institution in the District of Columbia designated by the Commissioner of Public Health and which is under the supervision of the Government of the District of Columbia or any agency thereof,

 

 

 

2.       Removal and detention orders, prepared by the Preventive Health Services Administration, Department of Human Services, and signed by the Commis­sioner of Public Health will be directed to the Chief of Police for service and will contain the individual’s name, address, age, sex, race, approximate weight, and approximate height.

 

a.       The order will state that the Commissioner of Public Health has cause to believe that such person is affected with a communicable disease and that the continuance of such person in the place where he/she may be is likely to be dangerous to the lives or health of other persons or that, by reason of the non-cooperation or carelessness of such person, the public health is likely to be endangered.

 

b.       The order will further designate the hospital to which mem­bers of this department shall take such person for detention.

 

c.       Upon signing the order, the Commissioner of Public Health will send an original with four attached copies te the Chief of Police for service. The order shall immediately be sent to the Director, Identification and Records Division for log­ging and transmittal to the appropriate district for service.

 

B.       Service of Removal and Detention Orders.

 

1.       Members of this department receiving a Removal and Detention Order shall serve the order immediately.

 

2.       Upon serving the order the officer shall:

 

a.       Advise the person named in the order of its contents;

 

b.       Fill out the appropriate section of the order with the date and time that the person was taken into custody; and

 

c.       Give a copy of the order to the person taken into custody.

 

3.       In order to eliminate unnecessary delays in the admission of such persons to institutions, the serving officer shall, as soon as practical after the person is taken into custody, notify a staff member of the institution (list­ed in the order) that the patient is in the process of being transported to that institution for the purpose of admission.

 

4.       The hospital to which the person is taken shall be given the orig­inal of the order (with the attached three remaining copies) by the transporting officer.

 

a.       The admitting physician at the hospital will indicate on the original and three (3) copies of the order the exact date and time the person was delivered into the custody and care of the institution. All signature entries shall be completed on the original and three remaining copies.

 

b.       The transporting officer shall leave one completed copy with the admitting physician before returning to service.

 

c.       The original and two (2) remaining copies of the order shall be taken back to the transporting officer’s district and turned over to the station clerk with a completed PD Form 251 (Event Report).

 

 

 

5.       Members serving and/or transporting persons suspected of having a communicable disease, as described in this order, shall complete a PD Form 251 (Event Report) and a PD Form 318 (Communicable Disease Contact Report) setting forth all pertinent information concerning contact with the patient. The classi­fication on the PD 251 shall be “Sick Person to Hospital (Communicable Disease).”

 

a.       Transportation of the patient from the hospital to the court and from the court back to the hospital may be entered on the same PD Form 251, provided the transportation was handled both ways by the same officer.

 

b.       If the transportation of the patient to and from the court is handled by different officers, separate PD Forms 251 must be completed.

 

c.       When a patient has been transported to the court or to the hospital, the assignment shall be considered completed and the radio dispatcher notified.

 

d.       If a return trip is necessary, the Communications Division shall again be contacted for a transport wagon to respond. The police officer or designated officer or employee of the DHS shall request this service.

 

6.       In the event a member is unable to locate the person named on the order within 48 hours, proper notations of the reasons, etc., shall be made on the copies; and the original with attached copies shall be returned immediately, through channels, to the Preventive Health Services Administration, DHS, where an investigation will be made to determine if additional information can be supplied or if other reasons exist for the police department to be asked to make a second attempt to take such person into custody, or if it necessary, to prepare affida­vits to obtain a warrant.

 

7.       In the event a member is unable to take such person into custody by reason of not being allowed to enter the premises where the person is found, a notation shall be made of this fact on the copies of the order and the original and all copies shall be immediately returned, through channels, so that affidavits may be prepared and a warrant obtained by the Preventive Health Services Administration, DHS.

 

C.       Providing Transportation.

 

1.       A cooperative individual shall be transported to the court and re­turned to the hospital to which originally confined in an ambulance in custody of a designated officer/employee of the OHS.

 

2.       An uncooperative individual shall be transported to the court and returned to the hospital in a MPD transport wagon. However, if the individual’s physical condition is such that it would not be advisable to use a MPD transport wagon the individual shall be transported in a public ambulance in the custody of a member of this department.

 

3.       When a patient has been transported to the court or the hospital with the assistance of a member of this department, the assignment shall be con­sidered completed.

 

4.       Members transporting patients to the court shall ensure that a medical officer of the Preventive Health Services Administration, OHS responds with them in order to prepare the proper papers and to testify in court.

 

 

 

 

 

 

D.       Precautionary Measures.

 

The following directions from the Board of Police and Fire Surgeons shall be followed by members in all cases in which they have come in contact with a person referred to in this order:

 

1.       Be assured that the risk of acquiring any such disease on such contact, especially Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - AIDS, is exceedingly remote.

 

2.       If the individual is coughing with expectoration, the use of a gauze mask by tnat individual is advised.

 

3.       Avoid the direct breath as much as possible.

 

4.       Wash hands thoroughly after “hands on” contact with the subject or patient. (Careful hand washing is probably your most important and effective method of preventing the spread of various communicable diseases).

 

5.       If you assist a subject or patient in a manner which may cause blood or other body fluid to be on your hands, disposable gloves should be used (unless exigent circumstances dictate otherwise) to avoid unnecessary contact with the skin (gloves are available in each transport wagon). This does not supersede the valve of good hand washing.

 

6.       Clean up blood spills and other body fluids with regular household bleach (Clorox) diluted one (1) part bleach to ten (10) parts water. (Wear dis­posable gloves during this procedure).