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TEXAS ADMINISTRATIVE CODE
TITLE 25. HEALTH SERVICES
PART 1. DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
CHAPTER 97. COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
SUBCHAPTER A. CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Date:
03/07/2014
Document:
§ 97.11. Notification of Emergency Medical Personnel, Fire Fighters, Peace Officers, Detention Officers, County Jailers, or Other Persons Providing Emergency Care of Possible Exposure to a Disease
(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 laryn-geal tuberculosis; and any viral hemorrhagic fever, if the worker and the patient are in the same room, vehicle, ambu-lance, or other enclosed space;
(2) Haemophilus influenzae type b infection, invasive; meningitis; meningococcal infections, invasive; mumps; po-liomyelitis; 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; hu-man 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;
(4) amebiasis; campylobacteriosis; cholera; cryptosporidiosis; Escherichia coli O157:H7 or other Shiga-toxin pro-ducing E. coli infection; hepatitis A; salmonellosis, including typhoid fever; shigellosis; and Vibrio infections, if fecal material is ingested; and
(5) Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) wounds, skin infections or soft tissue infections, if there has been contact of non-intact skin to these infections or drainage from these infections.
(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) - (5) of this section, the emergency medical service employee, peace officer, detention officer, county jailer, or fire fighter shall provide a medical profes-sional 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 of-ficer, 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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