Document Citation: N.D. Cent. Code, § 23-01-05

Header:
NORTH DAKOTA CENTURY CODE
TITLE 23 Health and Safety
CHAPTER 23-01 State Department of Health

Date:
08/31/2009

Document:

23-01-05. Health officer -- Qualifications, salary, term, duties -- Advisory committee.

The governor shall appoint the state health officer who must have had substantive private or public administrative experience and demonstrated experience in the management of people. The state health officer is entitled to receive a salary commensurate with that person's training and experience. The governor shall set the salary of the state health officer within the limits of legislative appropriations to the department. The state health officer is entitled to receive all necessary traveling expenses incurred in the performance of official business. The state health officer may not engage in any other occupation or business that may conflict with the statutory duties of the state health officer and holds office for a term of four years beginning January 1, 1993. The state health officer is the administrative officer of the state department of health. If the governor does not appoint as state health officer a physician licensed in this state, the governor shall appoint at least three licensed physicians recommended by the state medical association to serve as an advisory committee to the state health officer. Each member of the advisory committee is entitled to receive reimbursement of expenses in performing official duties in amounts provided by law for other state officers. The term of the advisory committee coincides with the term of the state health officer. A committee member serves at the pleasure of the governor. The duties of the state health officer are as follows:

1. Enforce all rules and regulations as promulgated by the health council.

2. Hold public health unit boards of health responsible for enforcement of state rules, serve in an advisory capacity to public health unit boards of health, and provide for coordination of health activities.

3. Establish and enforce minimum standards of performance of the work of the local department of health.

4. Study health problems and plan for their solution as may be necessary.

5. Collect, tabulate, and publish vital statistics for each important political or health administrative unit of the state and for the state as a whole.

6. Promote the development of local health services and recommend the allocation of health funds to local jurisdictions subject to the approval of the health council.

7. Collect and distribute health education material.

8. Maintain a central public health laboratory and where necessary, branch laboratories for the standard function of diagnostic, sanitary and chemical examinations, and production and procurement of therapeutic and biological preparations for the prevention of disease and their distribution for public health purposes.

9. Establish a service for medical hospitals and related institutions to include licensing of such institutions according to the standards promulgated by the health council and consultation service to communities planning the construction of new hospitals and related institutions.

10. Comply with the state merit system policies of personnel administration.

11. Establish a program to provide information to the surviving family of a child whose cause of death is suspected to have been the sudden infant death syndrome.

12. Issue any orders relating to disease control measures deemed necessary to prevent the spread of communicable disease. Disease control measures may include special immunization activities and decontamination measures. The state health officer may apply to the district court in a judicial district where a communicable disease is present for an injunction canceling public events or closing places of business. On application of the state health officer showing the necessity of such cancellation, the court may issue an ex parte preliminary injunction, pending a full hearing.

13. Make bacteriological examination of bodily secretions and excretions and of waters and foods.

14. Make preparations and examinations of pathological tissues submitted by the state health officer, by any county superintendent of public health, or by any physician who has been regularly licensed to practice in this state.

15. Make all required analyses and preparations, and furnish the results thereof, as expeditiously and promptly as possible.

16. Cause sanitary statistics to be collected and tabulated, and cause to be ascertained by research work such methods as will lead to the improvement of the sanitation of the various parts of the state.

17. From time to time, cause to be issued bulletins and reports setting forth the results of the sanitary and pathological work done in the laboratories embodying all useful and important information resulting from the work carried on in the laboratories during the year, the substance of such bulletins and reports to be incorporated in the annual report of the state health officer.

18. Establish by rule a schedule of reasonable fees that may be charged for laboratory analysis. No charge may be made for any analysis conducted in connection with any public health incident affecting an entire region, community, or neighborhood.

19. a. Establish a review process for instances in which the department is requested to conduct an epidemiological assessment of a commercial building. The epidemiological assessment must include:

(1) A statement of whether there are known environmental causes;

(2) If there are known environmental causes identified, a recommendation of how they can be remediated or mitigated; and

(3) If there are no known environmental causes identified, a statement that no known causes exist.

b. Costs for remediation, mitigation, and consultant services are the responsibility of the building owner. Proof of remediation of any identified environmental concern related to the epidemiological assessment is the burden of the building owner.