| (a) Purpose. The Communicable Disease Prevention and Control
Act (Act), §81.048, requires a licensed hospital to notify a health
authority in certain instances when an emergency medical service employee,
peace officer, detention officer, county jailer, or fire fighter may have
been exposed to a reportable disease during the course of duty from a
person delivered to the hospital under conditions that were favorable for
transmission. A hospital that gives notice of a possible exposure under
this section or a local health authority that receives notice of a
possible exposure under this section may give notice of the possible
exposure to a person other than emergency medical service employee, a
peace officer, a detention officer, a county jailer, or a fire fighter if
the person demonstrates that the person was exposed to the reportable
disease while providing emergency care.
(b) Disease and criteria which constitute exposure.
The following diseases and conditions constitute a possible exposure to
the disease for the purposes of the Act, §81.048:
(1) chickenpox; diphtheria; measles (rubeola);
pertussis; pneumonic plague; SARS; smallpox; pulmonary or laryngeal
tuberculosis; and any viral hemorrhagic fever, if the worker and the
patient are in the same room, vehicle, ambulance, or other enclosed space;
(2) Haemophilus influenzae type b
infection, invasive; meningitis; meningococcal infections, invasive;
mumps; poliomyelitis; Q fever (pneumonia); rabies; and rubella, if there
has been an examination of the throat, oral or tracheal intubation or
suctioning, or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation;
(3) acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(AIDS); anthrax; brucellosis; dengue; ehrlichiosis; hepatitis, viral;
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; malaria; plague; syphilis;
tularemia; typhus; any viral hemorrhagic fever; and yellow fever, if there
has been a needlestick or other penetrating puncture of the skin with a
used needle or other contaminated item; a splatter or aerosol into the
eye, nose, or mouth; or any significant contamination of an open wound or
non-intact skin with blood or body fluids; and
(4) amebiasis; campylobacteriosis;
cholera; cryptosporidiosis; Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection; hepatitis
A; salmonellosis, including typhoid fever; shigellosis; and Vibrio
infections, if fecal material is ingested.
(c) Notification processes. The following
notification processes shall apply when possible exposures to notifiable
conditions occur.
(1) If the hospital has knowledge that, on
admission to the hospital, the person transported has any of the
notifiable conditions listed in subsection (b)(1) of this section, then
notice of a possible exposure of an emergency medical service employee,
peace officer, detention officer, county jailer, or fire fighter to the
disease shall be given to the health authority for the jurisdiction where
the hospital is located.
(2) For possible exposures to any of the
diseases listed in subsection (b)(2) - (4) of this section, the emergency
medical service employee, peace officer, detention officer, county jailer,
or fire fighter shall provide a medical professional at the hospital with
notice, preferably written, of the circumstances of the possible exposure.
Once the hospital has knowledge of a possible exposure, then notice shall
be given as follows.
(A) The hospital shall report the
following information to the health authority for the jurisdiction where
the hospital is located:
(i) the name of the
emergency medical service employee, peace officer, or fire fighter
possibly exposed;
(ii) the date of
the exposure;
(iii) the
circumstances of the exposure;
(iv) whether
laboratory testing was performed for diseases potentially transmitted by
such exposures; and
(v) positive test
results for these diseases.
(B) The health authority
shall determine whether or not significant risk of disease transmission
exists and report his/her assessment of the possible exposure event to the
director of the entity that employs the emergency medical service
employee, peace officer, detention officer, county jailer, or fire
fighter.
(C) The director of the entity
that employs the emergency medical service employee, peace officer,
detention officer, county jailer, or fire fighter shall inform the
employee of the health authority's assessment.
(D) A person notified of a
possible exposure under this section shall maintain the confidentiality of
the information provided to him or her.
(d) Obligation to test. This section does
not create a duty for a hospital to perform a test that is not necessary
for the medical management of the person delivered to the hospital.
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