2012 Vermont Statutes
Title 28 Public Institutions and Corrections
Chapter 11 SUPERVISION OF ADULT INMATES AT THE CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES
§ 801 Medical care of inmates

§ 801. Medical care of inmates

(a) The department shall provide health care for inmates in accordance with the prevailing medical standards. When the provision of such care requires that the inmate be taken outside the boundaries of the correctional facility wherein the inmate is confined, the department shall provide reasonable safeguards, when deemed necessary, for the custody of the inmate while he or she is confined at a medical facility.

(b) Upon admission to a correctional facility for a minimum of 14 consecutive days each inmate shall be given a physical assessment unless extenuating circumstances exist.

(c) When there is reason to believe an inmate is in need of medical care, the officers and employees shall render emergency first aid and immediately secure additional medical care for the inmate in accordance with the above standards. A correctional facility shall have on staff at all times at least one person trained in emergency first aid.

(d) The department shall establish and maintain policies for the delivery of health care in accordance with the above standards.

(e) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, an offender who is admitted to a correctional facility while under the medical care of a licensed physician, a licensed advanced practice registered nurse, or a licensed nurse practitioner and who is taking medication at the time of admission pursuant to a valid prescription as verified by the inmate's pharmacy of record, primary care provider, other licensed care provider, or as verified by the Vermont prescription monitoring system or other prescription monitoring or information system shall be entitled to continue that medication and to be provided that medication by the department pending an evaluation by a licensed physician, a licensed physician's assistant, a licensed nurse practitioner, or a licensed advanced practice registered nurse. However, the department may defer provision of medication in accordance with this subsection if, in the clinical judgment of a licensed physician, a physician's assistant, a nurse practition

er, or an advanced practice registered nurse, it is not in the inmate's best interest to continue the medication at that time. The licensed practitioner who makes the clinical judgment shall enter the reason for the discontinuance into the inmate's permanent medical record. It is not the intent of the general assembly that this subsection shall create a new or additional private right of action.

(f) Any contract between the department and a provider of physical or mental health services shall establish policies and procedures for continuation and provision of medication at the time of admission and thereafter, as determined by an appropriate evaluation, which will protect the mental and physical health of inmates. (Added 1971, No. 199 (Adj. Sess.), § 20; amended 1985, No. 139 (Adj. Sess.); 1987, No. 199 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2009, No. 157 (Adj. Sess.), § 6.)