Loading...
a. The commissioner shall have all the powers and duties vested in him or in the department by this chapter or otherwise, except those vested by law in the board of health and the chief medical examiner. In the performance of his functions, the commissioner shall have, in addition to such others as may be conferred upon him from time to time, the power and duty to:
(1) Prepare and submit to appropriate governmental authorities short term, intermediate and long range plans and programs designed to meet the said needs of the city, including the needs for construction and operation of medical and health care facilities, and establish priorities among them, except that the commissioner may not construct or operate a new medical or health care facility until the health systems agency having jurisdiction over the institution, as recognized by the state health planning council, has received, in the case of private institutions, a copy of the application filed with the commissioner, or in the case of institutions of the city of New York, information in such form and detail as the health systems agency shall require, and it shall have given the commissioner a written decision expressing its approval or disapproval. The commissioner shall not be bound by this decision but he shall not approve any construction, addition or modification contrary to the health systems agency without first holding a public hearing. In reaching decisions pursuant to this paragraph, the commissioner and the health systems agency shall consider:
(a) The public need for the existence of the new institution or the construction, addition or modification of an existing institution at the time and place and under the circumstances proposed;
(b) The character, competence and standing in the community of the owners and licensees, in the case of private institutions;
(c) The financial resources of the institution and its sources of future revenues;
(d) The fitness and adequacy of the premises, and equipment, personnel and standards of care to be used in the operation of the proposed institution;
(e) Any decision of the local community board, on the institution in the community; and
(f) Such matters as each of them considers pertinent.
(2) [Repealed.]
b. In the exercise of the commissioner's functions, powers and duties the commissioner may:
(1) Compel the attendance of witnesses, administer oaths and compel the production of books, papers and documents in any matter or proceeding before the commissioner.
(2) Except as otherwise provided by law, assess any penalty prescribed for a violation of or a failure to comply with any provision of this chapter or any lawful notice, order or regulation pursuant thereto, not exceeding one thousand dollars, which penalty may be assessed after a hearing or an opportunity to be heard.
(Am. L.L. 2022/014, 1/9/2022, eff. 1/9/2022)
Except as otherwise provided by law, the department shall have jurisdiction to regulate all matters affecting health in the city of New York and to perform all those functions and operations performed by the city that relate to the health of the people of the city, including but not limited to the mental health, intellectual and developmental disability, alcoholism and substance abuse-related needs of the people of the city. The jurisdiction of the department shall include but not be limited to the following:
a. General functions.
(1) Enforce all provisions of law applicable in the area under the jurisdiction of the department for the preservation of human life, for the care, promotion and protection of health and relative to the necessary health supervision of the purity and wholesomeness of the water supply and the sources thereof. Each inspector or other employee of the department who issues notices of violation shall, for provisions of law that are enforced exclusively by the department, have access at the time that a violation is issued to equipment allowing such person: (a) to determine if such violation is a first-time violation of the applicable provision of law, and (b) if permitted by law, to issue a warning for such violation and to record that such a warning has been issued;
(2) maintain an office in each borough and maintain, furnish and operate in each borough office health centers and health stations or other facilities which may be required from time to time for the preservation of health or the care of the sick;
(3) exercise its functions, powers and duties in the area extending over the city, and over the waters adjacent thereto, within the jurisdiction of the city and within the quarantine limits as established by law;
(4) receive and expend funds made available for public health purposes pursuant to law; and
(5) arrange, with the approval of the mayor, for the rendition of services and operation of facilities by other agencies of the city;
b. Review of public health services and general public health planning.
(1) Develop and submit to the mayor and council a program for the delivery of services for the mentally disabled, including construction and operation of facilities;
(2) determine the needs of the mentally disabled in the city, which determination shall include the review and evaluation of all mental hygiene services and facilities within the department's jurisdiction;
(3) engage in short-range, intermediate-range and long-range mental hygiene planning that reflects the entire array of city needs in the areas of mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities and alcoholism and substance abuse services within the department's jurisdiction;
(4) implement and administer an inclusive citywide planning process for the delivery of services for people with mental disabilities; and design and incorporate within that planning process, consistent with applicable law, standards and procedures for community participation and communication with the commissioner at the borough and local community level;
(5) establish coordination and cooperation among all providers of services for the mentally disabled, coordinate the department's program with the program of the state department of mental hygiene so that there is a continuity of care among all providers of services, and seek to cooperate by mutual agreement with the state department of mental hygiene and its representatives and with institutions in such department and their representatives in pre-admission screening and in post-hospital care of persons suffering from mental disability;
(6) receive and expend funds made available for the purposes of providing mental health, intellectual and developmental disability and alcoholism and substance abuse related services;
(7) administer the unit responsible for early intervention services pursuant to the public health law; and
(8) in accordance with section five hundred fifty-five of this chapter, determine the public health needs of the city and prepare plans and programs addressing such needs.
c. Supervision of matters affecting public health.
(1) Supervise and control the registration of births, fetal deaths and deaths;
(2) supervise the reporting and control of communicable and chronic diseases and conditions hazardous to life and health; exercise control over and supervise the abatement of nuisances affecting or likely to affect the public health;
(3) make policy and plan for, monitor, evaluate and exercise general supervision over all services and facilities for the mentally disabled within the department's jurisdiction; and exercise general supervisory authority, through the promulgation of appropriate standards consistent with accepted professional practices for the care and treatment of patients within such services and facilities for the mentally disabled within the department's jurisdiction;
(4) except as otherwise provided by law, analyze and monitor hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and homes for the aged, and analyze, evaluate, supervise and regulate clinical laboratories, blood banks, and related facilities providing medical and health services and services ancillary thereto;
(5) to the extent necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter, the mental hygiene law and other applicable laws and when not inconsistent with any other law, arrange for the visitation, inspection and investigation of all providers of services for the mentally disabled, by the department or otherwise;
(6) conduct such inquiries into services and facilities for the mentally disabled as may be useful in performing the functions of the department, including investigations into individual patient care, and for such purpose the department may exercise the powers set forth in section five hundred fifty-five of this chapter and shall, consistent with the provisions of the mental hygiene law, have access to otherwise confidential patient records, provided such information is requested pursuant to the functions, powers and duties conferred upon the department by law;
(7) supervise and regulate the public health aspects of water supply and sewage disposal and water pollution;
(8) supervise and regulate the public health aspects of the production, processing and distribution of milk, cream and milk products, except for such inspection, regulation and supervision of the sanitary quality of milk and cream distributed, consumed or sold within the city as performed by the New York department of agriculture and markets pursuant to section seventy-one-l of the agriculture and markets law;
(9) supervise and regulate the food and drug supply of the city and other businesses and activities affecting public health in the city, and ensure that such businesses and activities are conducted in a manner consistent with the public interest and by persons with good character, honesty and integrity;
(10) supervise and regulate the removal, transportation and disposal of human remains;
(11) supervise and regulate the public health aspects of ionizing radiation, the handling and disposal of radioactive wastes, and the activities within the city affecting radioactive materials, excluding special nuclear materials in quantities sufficient to form a critical mass; and
(12) in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter and the mental hygiene law, make rules and regulations covering the provision of services by providers of services for the mentally disabled.
d. Promotion or provision of public health services.
(1) Maintain and operate public health centers and clinics as shall be established in the department;
(2) engage in or promote health research for the purpose of improving the quality of medical and health care; in conducting such research, the department shall have the authority to conduct medical audits, to receive reports on forms prepared or prescribed by the department; such information when received by the department shall be kept confidential and used solely for the purpose of medical or scientific research or the improvement of the quality of medical care;
(3) produce, standardize and distribute certain diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic products and conduct laboratory examinations for the diagnosis, prevention and control of disease;
(4) promote or provide for public education on mental disability and the prevention and control of disease;
(5) promote or provide for programs for the prevention and control of disease and for the prevention, diagnosis, care, treatment, social and vocational rehabilitation, special education and training of the mentally disabled;
(6) promote or provide diagnostic and therapeutic services for maternity and child health, family planning, communicable disease, medical rehabilitation and other diseases and conditions affecting public health;
(7) promote or provide medical and health services for school children and the ambulant sick and needy persons of the city;
(8) promote or provide medical and health services for the incarcerated individuals of prisons maintained and operated by the city;
(9) within the amounts appropriated therefor, enter into contracts for the rendition or operation of services and facilities for the mentally disabled on a per capita basis or otherwise, including contracts executed pursuant to subdivision e of section 41.19 of the mental hygiene law;
(10) within the amounts appropriated therefor, execute such programs and maintain such facilities for the mentally disabled as may be authorized under such appropriations; and
(11) use the services and facilities of public or private voluntary institutions whenever practical, and encourage all providers of services to cooperate with or participate in the program of services for the mentally disabled, whether by contract or otherwise.
e. Other functions.
(1) Prior to the sale, closing, abandonment of a city hospital or transfer of a city hospital to any other hospital or facility, hold a public hearing with reference to such proposed sale, closing, abandonment or transfer; publish notice of such public hearing in the City Record and in such daily newspaper or newspapers published in the city of New York as shall be selected by the commissioner, such publication to take place not less than ten days nor more than thirty days prior to the date fixed for the hearing; and adjourn such hearing from time to time, if necessary, in order to allow persons interested to attend or express their views;
(2) submit all materials required by the mental hygiene law for purposes of state reimbursement;
(3) provide for membership on such state or federally authorized committees as may be appropriate to the discharge of the department's functions, powers and duties; and
(4) perform such other acts as may be necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this chapter and the purposes of the mental hygiene law.
(Am. L.L. 2015/013, 2/5/2015, eff. 2/5/2015; Am. 2021 N.Y. Laws Ch. 322, 8/2/2021, eff. 8/2/2021; Am. L.L. 2022/014, 1/9/2022, eff. 1/9/2022; Am. L.L. 2021/159, 12/24/2021, eff. 6/22/2022)
(a) There shall be in the department an independent office of chief medical examiner, the head of which shall be the chief medical examiner, who shall be appointed by the mayor from the classified civil service and be a doctor of medicine and a skilled pathologist and microscopist. The mayor may remove the chief medical examiner upon filing in the office of the commissioner of citywide administrative services and serving upon the chief medical examiner his or her reasons therefor and allowing such officer an opportunity of making a public explanation.
(b) The commissioner with respect to the office of chief medical examiner shall exercise the powers and duties set forth in paragraph one of subdivision a of section five hundred fifty-five of this chapter, but shall not interfere with the performance by the chief medical examiner or his or her office of the powers and duties prescribed by the provisions of this section or any other law.
(c) The chief medical examiner may appoint and remove such deputy chief medical examiners, medical examiners, medical investigators, lay medical investigators, scientific experts and other officers and employees as may be provided for in the budget. The deputy chief medical examiners and medical examiners shall possess the same basic qualifications as the chief medical examiner. The medical investigators shall be physicians duly licensed to practice medicine in the state of New York and shall possess such additional qualifications as may be required by the department of citywide administrative services.
(d) The office shall be kept open every day in the year, including Sundays and legal holidays, with a clerk in attendance at all times during the day and night.
(e) The chief medical examiner or his or her designee shall have power to require the attendance and take testimony under oath of such persons as he or she may deem necessary and to require the production of books, accounts, papers and other evidence relative to any matter within the jurisdiction of the office.
(f) (1) The chief medical examiner shall have such powers and duties as may be provided by law in respect to bodies of person dying from criminal violence, by accident, by suicide, suddenly when in apparent health, when unattended by a physician, in a correctional facility or in any suspicious or unusual manner or where an application is made pursuant to law for a permit to cremate a body of a person.
(2) The chief medical examiner shall perform the functions of the city mortuary and related functions, including the removal, transportation and disposal of unclaimed or unidentified human remains and the remains of those individuals who have died outside of a medical institution.
(3) The chief medical examiner may, to the extent permitted by law, provide forensic and related testing and analysis, and ancillary services, in furtherance of investigations concerning persons both alive and deceased, including but not limited to: performing autopsies; performing deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing and other forms of genetic testing and analysis; obtaining samples and exemplars; performing pathology, histology and toxicology testing and analysis; and determining the cause or manner of injuries and/or death.
(4) Notwithstanding any inconsistent provision of this section and in addition to any other powers and duties, the chief medical examiner may engage in health research in conjunction with the department consistent with paragraph two of subdivision d of section five hundred fifty six of this chapter.
(g) The chief medical examiner shall keep full and complete records in such form as may be provided by law. The chief medical examiner shall promptly deliver to the appropriate district attorney copies of all records relating to every death as to which there is, in the judgment of the medical examiner in charge, any indication of criminality. Such records shall not be open to public inspection.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Administrative Code Appendix A at L.L. 1996/059.
(a) The health code which is in force in the city on the date on which this chapter takes effect and all existing provisions of law fixing penalties for violation of the code and all regulations of the board of health on file with the city clerk on the date when this chapter takes effect shall continue to be binding and in force except as amended or repealed from time to time. Such code shall have the force and effect of law.
(b) The board of health from time to time may add to and alter, amend or repeal any part of the health code, and may therein publish additional provisions for security of life and health in the city and confer additional powers on the department not inconsistent with the constitution, laws of this state or this charter, and may provide for the enforcement of the health code or any orders made by the commissioner or the board of health, by such fines, penalties, forfeitures and imprisonment as may be prescribed therein or otherwise by law.
(c) The board of health may embrace in the health code all matters and subjects to which the power and authority of the department extends. The board of health shall prescribe in the health code the persons who shall be required to keep a registry of birth, fetal deaths, and deaths occurring in the city and file certifications thereof with the department and the form and manner in which such registry shall be kept and certificates filed, and, it shall provide for the recording of births which have not been recorded in accordance with law, for the change or alteration of any birth, fetal death or death certificate upon proof satisfactory, to the commissioner, for the examination and issuance of transcripts of such certificates and for fees to be charged therefor.
(d) The board of health shall prescribe in the health code that the parent with legal custody or legal guardian of any child receiving day care services as authorized in such code shall have unlimited and on demand access to such child or ward. The department of health and mental hygiene shall make unannounced visits of such day care services if such board receives a complaint that, if true, would indicate that children in such services are not receiving adequate or appropriate care. Such board shall also prescribe in such code that during the period for which day care services are authorized upon any premises, the department shall whenever possible make at least one unannounced visit of every such premises annually.
(e) Any violation of the health code shall be treated and punished as a misdemeanor. The board of health or an administrative tribunal established by the board of health to enforce the provisions of the health code shall have the power to enforce its final decisions and orders imposing pecuniary penalties as if they were money judgments, without court proceedings, in the manner described herein. After four months from the issuance of such a final decision and order by such board or tribunal a copy of such decision and order shall be filed in the office of the clerk of any county within the city. In the event that the decision and order were issued as a result of the respondent being in default, a notice of default shall be mailed to such respondent at least seven days before such filing, and a copy of such notice and a receipt of mailing thereof shall be filed with the copy of such decision and order. Upon such filing, such county clerk shall enter and docket such decision and order, in the same manner and with the same effect as a money judgment. Upon such entry and docketing, such decision and order may be enforced as provided in article fifty-two of the civil practice law and rules. Such board or tribunal shall not enter any final decision or order pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision unless the notice of violation shall have been served in the same manner as is prescribed for service of process by article three of the civil practice law and rules or article three of the business corporation law. Such board or tribunal may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for enforcement of any other decision, order or subpoena issued by such board or tribunal. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit or abridge the board's or the department's right to pursue any other remedy prescribed by law. Pecuniary penalties for violations of the health code may be recovered in a civil action before any court in the city having jurisdiction of civil actions.
(f) No amendment or addition to the health code or repeal of any provision thereof adopted by the board of health subsequent to the effective date of this chapter shall become valid and effective until a copy of such amendment, addition or repeal is duly certified by the person serving as secretary of the board.
(g) The board of health may add, amend and repeal regulations in regard to any matter contained in the health code, and such regulations shall have the same force and effect as a provision of the health code.
(h) No action shall abate, or right of action already accrued be abolished, by reason of the expiration, repeal or amendment of any provision of the health code or regulations in regard thereto.
The commissioner, with the concurrence of the board of health, may adopt a seal which may be used for the authentication of the orders and proceedings of the board and of the department and in commissioning the officers and agents of the department and otherwise as may be provided for by the commissioner or in the health code.
The board of health, during the prevalence of an epidemic or in the presence of great and imminent peril to the public health and when in the board's judgment it is necessary to do so, may take possession of any buildings in the city for temporary hospitals and shall pay a just compensation for any private property so taken. Such temporary hospitals shall be under the control of the commissioner.
Loading...