Sec. 551.041. MEDICAL AND DENTAL TREATMENT. (a) Each department shall provide or perform recognized medical and dental treatment or services to a person admitted or committed to that department's care. Each department may perform this duty through an authorized agent.
(b) Each department may contract for the support, maintenance, care, or medical or dental treatment or service with a municipal, county, or state hospital, a private physician, a licensed nursing facility or hospital, or a hospital district. The authority to contract provided by this subsection is in addition to other contractual authority granted to the department. A contract entered into under this subsection may not assign a lien accruing to this state.
(c) If a department requests consent to perform medical or dental treatment or services from a person or the guardian of the person whose consent is considered necessary and a reply is not obtained immediately, or if there is no guardian or responsible relative of the person to whom a request can be made, the superintendent or director of a department facility shall order:
(1) medical treatment or services for the person on the advice and consent of three physicians licensed by the Texas Medical Board, at least one of whom is primarily engaged in the private practice of medicine; or
(2) dental treatment or services for the person on the advice and consent of a dentist licensed by the State Board of Dental Examiners and of two physicians licensed by the Texas Medical Board, at least one of whom is primarily engaged in the private practice of medicine.
(d) This section does not authorize the performance of an operation involving sexual sterilization or a frontal lobotomy.
Added by Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., ch. 76, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1991.
Amended by:
Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1 (S.B. 219), Sec. 3.1337, eff. April 2, 2015.
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