Attorney General Opinion WW-1170

GENERAL THE ATTORNEY OF TEXAS AUSTIN ~I.TE- October 19, 1961 Honorable Doug Crouch Opinion No. WW-1170 District Attorney Fort Worth, Texas Re: Whether the Tarrant County Hospital District is auth- orized to add the functions and duties of the Senior Public Health Nurse under Dear Mr. Crouch: the facts stated. You have requested an opinion from this office to determine whether the Tarrant County Hospital is authorized to add the functions and duties of the Senior Public Health Nurse to the duties that the hospital district is required to perform under the provisions of Article 449&n, Vernon's Civil Statutes. Under the provisions of Article 2351, Sec- tion 11, Vernon's Civil Statutes, the Commissioners' Court has the duty to "11. Provide for the support of paupers and such idiots and lunatics as cannot be admitted Into the lunatic asylum, residents of their county, who are unable to support themselves. By the term resident as used herein, is meant a person who has been a bona fide inhabitant of the county not less than six months and of the State not less than one year." The Legislature established a means for Commissioners' Courts in counties having populations of over 190,000 to set up a hospital or hospital system to furnish medical aid and hos- pital care to the Indigent and needy persons residing within the hospital district. Throughout the provisions of Sections 5 and 6 of Article k&k, Vernon's Civil Statutes, the statute refers to the hospital or hospital system, and Section 13 further provides: II . . * and such Hospital District shall be deemed to have assumed full respon- sibility for the furnishing of medical and hospital care for the needy and indigent persons resrding In said Hospital District from the date that taxes are collected for the Hospital District." Honorable Doug Crouch, page 2. (WW-1170) From the provisions of Article 449&n, it is evident that the hospital district and the taxes that it collects are to be used to provide for medical and hospital care for needy and indigent persons, within the meaning of the terms of Article 2351, Section 11, Vernon's Civil Sta- tutes. From the facts related in your request that the duties of the public health nurse are to deal principally with outlying schools in the county for the purpose of con- trolling communicable diseases among school children, it Is our opinion that her duties could not be considered to fall within those authorized for hospital districts to undertake under the provisions of Article 449&n, Vernon's Civil Statutes. This conclusion is stren thened by the fact that under the provisions of Article 4 18f, & quoted below "It shall be lawful for the State Department of Health to accept donations and contributions, to be expended in the interest of the public health and the en- forcement of public health laws. The Com- missioners Court of any County shall have the authority to appropriate and expend money from the general revenues of Its County for and in behalf of public health and sanitation within its County.", the Commissioners' Courts are given authority to appropriate and expend money from the general revenues of the county for and on behalf of public health and sanitation within its county which shows that it was contemplated by the Legisla- ture that the burden of maintaining personnel to promote public health and to enforce public health laws was to fall on the Commissioners' Court rather than the county hospital district. SUMMARY The Tarrant County Hospital Dis- trict is not authorized to add the Honorable Doug Crouch, Page 2 (ww-1170) JCS: zt functions and duties of the Senior Public Health Nurse, under the stated facts, to the duties imposed by statute on a county hospital district In Tarrant County. Very truly yours, WILL WILSON Attorney General of Texas BY F e. JGb+wy John C. Stelnberger Assistant APPROVED: OPINION COMMITTEE W. V.Geppert, Chairman Elmer McVey Gordon Cass Riley Eugene Fletcher Iola Wilcox REVIEWED FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: Houghton Brownlee, Jr.