The county attorney and the general assistance director, or other agent of the board of supervisors of the county, shall appear at the hearing. The complainant, the county attorney, the general assistance director or other agent of the board of supervisors, and the patient, or any person representing the patient, may introduce evidence and be heard. If the court finds that the patient is a legal resident of Iowa and is pregnant or is suffering from a malady or deformity which can probably be improved or cured or advantageously treated by medical or surgical treatment or hospital care, and that neither the patient nor any person legally chargeable with the patient's support is able to pay the expenses, then the clerk of court, except in obstetrical cases and orthopedic cases, shall immediately ascertain from the admitting physician at the university hospital whether the person can be received as a patient within a period of thirty days, and if the patient can be received, the court, or in the event of no actual contest, the clerk of the court, shall enter an order directing that the patient be sent to the university hospital for proper medical and surgical treatment and hospital care. If the court ascertain, except in obstetrical cases and orthopedic cases, that a person of the age or sex of the patient, or afflicted by the complaint, disease, or deformity with which the person is afflicted, cannot be received as a patient at the university hospital within the period of thirty days, then the court or the clerk shall enter an order directing the board of supervisors of the county to provide adequate treatment at county expense for the patient at home or in a hospital. Obstetrical cases and orthopedic cases may be committed to the university hospital without regard to the limiting period of thirty days.
In any case of emergency the court or the clerk without previous inquiry may at its discretion order the patient to be immediately taken to and accepted by the university hospital for the necessary care as provided in section 255.11, but if such a patient cannot be immediately accepted at the university hospital as ascertained by telephone if necessary, the court or the clerk may enter an order as in certain cases above set forth directing the board of supervisors to provide adequate treatment at county expense for the said patient at home or in a hospital.
[SS15, § 254-c; C24, 27, 31, 35, § 4012; C39, § 3828.139; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 255.8]
92 Acts, ch 1212, § 24
Referred to in § 255.9, 255.14, 331.756(53)
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