N.Y. General Municipal Law § 122: Refusal to take persons to hospital prohibited; exception for cities with a population of one million or more

§ 122. Refusal to take persons to hospital prohibited; exception for

cities with a population of one million or more. 1. (a) Except as

otherwise provided in subdivision two of this section, in any city,

county, town or village of this state wherein exists, or is hereafter

created, an ambulance system, supported wholly or partly at public

expense, or which is wholly or partly under the care, management or

control of the public authorities, no person in charge of an ambulance,

hospital, or house or place of reception for the sick or injured, shall

refuse, in answer to a call or demand for an ambulance, if such call has

been answered by the attendance of an ambulance, to take such person for

whom a call may be made to the hospital or place of reception for the

sick or injured from which the ambulance came, for examination and

treatment by the house authorities of the said hospital or place of

reception for the sick or injured.

(b) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision two of this section,

any person neglecting or refusing to comply with the provisions of this

section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

(c) This subdivision shall apply to the drivers of and to the

physician in charge of an ambulance.

2. In cities with a population of one million or more, nothing

contained in subdivision one of this section shall be construed to

require the transportation of any person when: (a) an emergency medical

technician, advanced emergency medical technician or paramedic, employed

by or under the supervision of a public benefit corporation authorized

by law to maintain an emergency medical service, called to transport

such person, physically examines such person; (b) such emergency medical

technician, advanced emergency medical technician or paramedic transmits

the findings made during such examination to a physician in

communication authorized to provide medical control by such city's

emergency medical service; and (c) such physician determines, based

solely upon the medical condition of such person being considered for

ambulance transportation, that such person either is not in need of

emergency medical care or is neither sufficiently ill nor injured to

necessitate transportation to a hospital by means of an ambulance.