135.22 - CENTRAL REGISTRY FOR BRAIN OR SPINAL CORD INJURIES.
135.22 CENTRAL REGISTRY FOR BRAIN OR SPINAL CORD
INJURIES.
1. As used in this section:
a. "Brain injury" means the occurrence of injury to the head
not primarily related to a degenerative disease or aging process that
is documented in a medical record with one or more of the following
conditions attributed to the head injury:
(1) An observed or self-reported decreased level of
consciousness.
(2) Amnesia.
(3) A skull fracture.
(4) An objective neurological or neuropsychological abnormality.
(5) A diagnosed intracranial lesion.
b. "Spinal cord injury" means the occurrence of an acute
traumatic lesion of neural elements in the spinal cord including the
spinal cord and cauda equina, resulting in temporary or permanent
sensory deficit, motor deficit, or bladder or bowel dysfunction.
2. The director shall establish and maintain a central registry
of persons with brain or spinal cord injuries in order to facilitate
prevention strategies and the provision of appropriate rehabilitative
services to the persons by the department and other state agencies.
Hospitals shall report patients who are admitted with a brain or
spinal cord injury and their diagnoses to the director no later than
forty-five days after the close of a quarter in which the patient was
discharged. The report shall contain the name, age, and residence of
the person, the date, type, and cause of the brain or spinal cord
injury, and additional information as the director requires, except
that where available, hospitals shall report the Glasgow coma scale.
The director shall consult with health care providers concerning the
availability of additional relevant information. The department
shall maintain the confidentiality of all information which would
identify any person named in a report. However, the identifying
information may be released for bona fide research purposes if the
confidentiality of the identifying information is maintained by the
researchers, or the identifying information may be released by the
person with the brain or spinal cord injury or by the person's
guardian or, if the person is a minor, by the person's parent or
guardian. Section History: Recent Form
89 Acts, ch 320, § 10; 92 Acts, ch 1237, § 6; 94 Acts, ch 1068,
§3; 99 Acts, ch 141, §3
Referred to in § 135.22A, 335.25, 414.22