Chap. 486.—An ACT to provide for the licensing, regulation, and inspection
of maternity hospitals, and to repeal sections 1925 to 1930, inclusive, of the

Code of Virginia. [S B 93]
Approved March 27, 1922. "

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. Any person who receives for care or treatment during
pregnancy or during delivery, or within ten days after delivery, more
than one woman within a period of one year, except women related
to such person by blood or marriage, shall be deemed to maintain a
maternity hospital. The word “person,” where used in this act shall
include individuals, voluntary associations, partnership corporations
and partnerships.

Section 2. The State board of public welfare may grant a license
for the conduct of any maternity hospital that is for the public good
and is conducted by a reputable and responsible person. No mater-
nity hospital shall receive a woman for care therein without first
obtaining a license to conduct such hospital from the State board of
public welfare. No such license shall be issued unless the medical
staff of the hospital includes one or more resident registered nurses
and one or more licensed physicians, and the premises are in fit
sanitary condition, and the application for such license has been
approved by the local board of health. The license may be granted
for a period not exceeding one year, and shall state the name of the
licensee, the particular premises in which the business may be carried
on, and the number of women that may be treated or cared for therein
at any one time. The license shall be kept posted in a conspicuous
place on the licensed premises. No greater number of women shall
be kept at one time than is authorized by the license; and no woman
shall be kept in a building or place not designated by the license
without the consent of the State board of public welfare. A record
of every license so issued shall be kept by. the State board of public
welfare, which shall forthwith give notice to the State board of health,
and to the board of health of the county or city in which the licensee
resides, of the granting of such license and the term thereof. The
State board of public welfare may revoke a license so issued when
a provision of this act is violated, or when in the opinion of said
board, such hospital is maintained without due regard to the sani-
tation and hygiene, or to the health, comfort or well-being of the
inmates or or infants born to such inmates; provided, however, that
any such licensee shall have the right of appeal, within ten days
after receiving notice of the revocation of such license, to the cor-
poration or hustings court of the city or to the circyit court of the
county wherein such hospital is situated. The application for such
appeal shall operate as a supersedeas to such order of revocation.
From any final order or judgment of such corporation, hustings or
circuit court, an appeal, writ of error or supersedeas may be applied
for to the supreme court of appeals in the manner prescribed by law.

Section 3. The State board of public welfare shall prescribe and
furnish forms for the registration and record of persons cared for
in any such hospital; provided, however, that in no case shall the
true name of the patient be required to be stated.

Section 4. Every birth occurring in a maternity hospital shall be
attended by a legally qualified physician or a competent nurse. The
licensee conducting such hospital shall within twenty-four hours after
a birth occurs therein in addition to the report required to be filed with
the State registrar of vital statistics, make a written report thereof
to the State board of public welfare and local board of health, giving
the sex of the child and such additional information, when obtainable,
as the State board may require, The licensee shall immediately after
the death in such maternity hospital of a woman, or an infant born
therein, notify the local board of health of the city or county in which
such hospital is located.

Section 5. The officers and agents of the State board of public
welfare, and the focal board of health in which a licensed hospital 1s
located shall visit and inspect such hospital at least once in every three
months. Moreover, the State board of heaith, through its officers
or agents, may also inspect every such hospital when deemed neces-
sary by said board. The licensee shall give all such information to
such inspectors and afford them every facility for viewing the premi-
ses and seeing the inmates. The said inspectors shall make report of
conditions in said hospital, and such report shall be kept by the State
board of public welfare.

Section 6. No maternity hospital shall engage in the business of
child placing. Any child born in any maternity hospital who 1s
illegitimate and whose father is unknown and whose mother is unable
to care for such child, or any child who for any reason will be left
destitute of support, shall, through proper court proceedings, be com-
mitted to the State board of public welfare, or to any agency licensed
to engage in the business of child placing.

Section 7. On a prosecution under the provisions of this act, a
defendant who relies for defense upon the relationship of any woman
or infant to himself, shall have the burden of proof on that issue.

Section 8. No officer, or agent, or employee of the State board
of public welfare, the State board of health, or the local board of
health of the city or county where such licensed hospital is located,
or any person who has held such position, shall, directly or indirectly,
disclose the contents of the records herein provided for, except upon
inquiry before a court or justice, or by order of a court or justice,
or upon a coroner’s inquest, or for the information of the State board
of public welfare, the State board of health, or the local board of
health of the city or county in which said hopital is located ; provided,
however, that nothing herein shall prohibit the State board of public
welfare from disclosing such facts with the consent of the parents of
said child to such persons as may be in the interest of the child.

Section 9. Every person who violates any of the provisions of
this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall
be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or by
imprisonment in jail for not more than one year, or by both such fine
and imprisonment.

Section 10. Sections nineteen hundred and twenty-five to nine-
teen hundred and thirty, inclusive, of the Code of Virginia are hereby
repealed.