A. The Chief Medical Examiner shall appoint for each county and city one or more medical examiners, who shall be licensed as a doctor of medicine or osteopathic medicine, a physician assistant, or a nurse practitioner in the Commonwealth and appointed as agents of the Commonwealth, to assist the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner with medicolegal death investigations. A physician assistant appointed as a medical examiner shall have a practice agreement with and be under the continuous supervision of a physician medical examiner in accordance with § 54.1-2952. A nurse practitioner appointed as a medical examiner shall have a practice agreement with and practice in collaboration with a physician medical examiner in accordance with § 54.1-2957.

B. Each medical examiner appointed pursuant to subsection A shall take office on the first day of October of the year of appointment. The term of each medical examiner so appointed shall be three years.

C. The Chief Medical Examiner shall fill any medical examiner vacancy for the unexpired term and shall make any necessary temporary appointments.

History

Code 1950, § 32-31.16; 1952, c. 318; 1960, c. 366; 1975, c. 475; 1979, c. 711; 2014, c. 583; 2015, c. 107.