NRS444.335. Health authority to supervise sanitation of certain local institutions; regulations; inspections and reports.

      1.  The health authority shall have supervision over the sanitation, healthfulness, cleanliness and safety, as it pertains to the foregoing matters, of the following city, county and private institutions:

      (a) Jails, correctional institutions and other institutions performing similar functions, including, without limitation, any facility for the detention of children;

      (b) Schools; and

      (c) School gymnasiums.

      2.  The State Board of Health shall, with respect to jails, correctional institutions and other institutions performing similar functions, including, without limitation, any facility for the detention of children, and may, with respect to the other institutions named in subsection 1, adopt and enforce such regulations as are necessary to promote properly the sanitation, healthfulness, cleanliness and safety, as it pertains to the foregoing matters, of those institutions.

      3.  The health authority shall inspect those institutions at least once each calendar year and at such other times as, in its discretion, it deems an inspection necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, except that inspections of schools and gymnasiums shall be made at least twice each year, once during each semester. The inspection of any institution which has physical custody of children pursuant to the order of a court must include, without limitation, an inspection of all areas where food is prepared and served, bathrooms, areas used for sleeping, common areas and areas located outdoors that are used by children at the facility.

      4.  A report of the findings of an inspection must be made to the Chief Medical Officer within 20 days following the inspection. The Chief Medical Officer shall publish the report of the inspection of any facility which has physical custody of children pursuant to the order of a court and may from time to time, in his or her discretion, publish the reports of the inspections of other institutions.

      5.  All persons charged with the duty of maintenance and operation of the institutions named in this section shall operate those institutions in conformity with regulations relating to sanitation, healthfulness, cleanliness and safety, as it pertains to the foregoing matters, adopted by the State Board of Health.

      6.  The health authority may, in carrying out the provisions of this section, enter upon any part of the premises of any of the institutions named in this section over which it has jurisdiction, to determine the sanitary conditions of those places and to determine whether the provisions of this section and the regulations of the State Board of Health pertaining thereto are being violated.

      (Added to NRS by 1973, 228; A 1979, 1009; 2007, 1195)