§ 130A-480. Emergency department data reporting.
§ 130A‑480. Emergencydepartment data reporting.
(a) For the purpose ofensuring the protection of the public health, the State Health Director shalldevelop a syndromic surveillance program for hospital emergency departments inorder to detect and investigate public health threats that may result from (i)a terrorist incident using nuclear, biological, or chemical agents or (ii) anepidemic or infectious, communicable, or other disease. The State HealthDirector shall specify the data to be reported by hospitals pursuant to thisprogram, subject to the following:
(1) Each hospital shallsubmit electronically available emergency department data as specified by ruleby the Commission. The Commission, in consultation with hospitals, shallestablish by rule a schedule for the implementation of full electronicreporting capability of all data elements by all hospitals. The schedule shalltake into consideration the number of data elements already reported by thehospital, the hospital's capacity to electronically maintain the remainingelements, available funding, and other relevant factors.
(2) None of thefollowing data for patients or their relatives, employers, or household membersmay be collected by the State Health Director: names; postal or street addressinformation, other than town or city, county, state, and the first five digitsof the zip code; geocode information; telephone numbers; fax numbers;electronic mail addresses; social security numbers; health plan beneficiarynumbers; account numbers; certificate or license numbers; vehicle identifiersand serial numbers, including license plate numbers; device identifiers andserial numbers; web universal resource locators (URLs); Internet protocol (IP)address numbers; biometric identifiers, including finger and voice prints; andfull face photographic images and any comparable images.
(b) The following arenot public records under Chapter 132 of the General Statutes and are privilegedand confidential:
(1) Data reported to theState Health Director pursuant to this section.
(2) Data collected ormaintained by any entity with whom the State Health Director contracts for thereporting, collection, or analysis of data pursuant to this section.
The State Health Directorshall maintain the confidentiality of the data reported pursuant to thissection and shall ensure that adequate measures are taken to provide systemsecurity for all data and information. The State Health Director may share datawith local health departments and the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC) for public health purposes. Local health departments are boundby the confidentiality provisions of this section. The Department shall enterinto an agreement with the CDC to ensure that the CDC complies with theconfidentiality provisions of this section. The State Health Director shall notallow information that it receives pursuant to this section to be used forcommercial purposes and shall not release data except as authorized by otherprovisions of law.
(c) A person is immunefrom liability for actions arising from the required submission of data underthis Article.
(d) For purposes ofthis section, "hospital" means a hospital, as defined in G.S. 131E‑214.1(3),that operates an emergency room on a 24‑hour basis. The term does not includea psychiatric hospital that operates an emergency room.
(e) Administrativeemergency department data shall be reported by hospitals under Article 11A ofChapter 131E of the General Statutes. (2004‑124, s. 10.34(b); 2006‑264, s.64(a); 2007‑8, s. 1.)