§ 7504. Application and certificate for emergency examination

(a) Upon written application by an interested party made under the pains and penalties of perjury and accompanied by a certificate by a licensed physician who is not the applicant, a person shall be held for admission to a hospital for an emergency examination to determine if he or she is a person in need of treatment. The application and certificate shall set forth the facts and circumstances that constitute the need for an emergency examination and that show that the person is a person in need of treatment.

(b) The application and certificate shall be authority for transporting the person to a hospital for an emergency examination, as provided in section 7511 of this title.

(c) For the purposes of admission of an individual to a designated hospital for care and treatment under this section, a head of a hospital, as provided in subsection (a) of this section, may include a person designated in writing by the head of the hospital to discharge the authority granted in this section. A designated person must be an official hospital administrator, supervisory personnel, or a licensed physician on duty on the hospital premises other than the certifying physician under subsection (a) of this section. (Added 1967, No. 305 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Oct. 1, 1968; amended 1969, No. 33, § 2, eff. April 1, 1969; 1973, No. 107, § 4; 1977, No. 252 (Adj. Sess.), § 7; 2003, No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 141f; 2013, No. 192 (Adj. Sess.), § 5, eff. Nov. 1, 2014.)