New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 14 - DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HYGIENE
Chapter II - All Facilities
Subchapter A - Admission And Transfer Of Patients
Part 15 - Admission And Retention Of Patients
Section 15.8 - Involuntary admission on the certificate of a director of community services or his designee

(a) The director of any facility in the hospital class, upon application by a director of community services or an examining physician duly designated by him, may receive and care for in such hospital as a patient any person who, in the opinion of the director of community services or his designee, has a mental illness for which immediate inpatient care and treatment in a hospital is appropriate and which is likely to result in serious harm to himself or others. The need for immediate hospitalization shall be confirmed by a staff physician of the hospital prior to admission.

(b) If such a patient is to be retained beyond 72 hours of admission, excluding Sundays and holidays, and does not agree to remain as a voluntary patient, the certificate of another examining physician shall be obtained. Such additional examining physician shall be a psychiatrist who need not necessarily be on the staff of the hospital. Psychiatrist, for purposes of this section, shall mean certified as a psychiatrist, or eligibility for such certification, by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology or certified as a qualified psychiatrist by the commissioner.

(c) No person disqualified by section 31.05 of the Mental Hygiene Law from acting as an examining physician for the admission of a patient shall be eligible to service as the additional examining physician for this type of admission.