6 CCR 1009-8
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology Division RULES AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE REPORTING OF SELECTED CAUSES OF MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY IN COLORADO 6 CCR 1009-8 [Editor’s Notes follow the text of the rules at the end of this CCR Document.] _______________________________________________________________________________ Authority for Establishing Rules and Regulations The following regulations are promulgated pursuant to CRS 25-1-107(1)(f) which states the Department has the power and duty “to collect, compile, and tabulate reports of...deaths and morbidity and to require any person having information with regard to the same to make such reports and submit such information as the board [of Health] shall by rule or regulation provide.” Regulation 1. Reportable Causes of Morbidity and Mortality For the purpose of tabulating accurate reports of significant causes of morbidity and mortality in Colorado, the diseases and conditions named in the list below shall be reportable by physicians, other health care providers, hospitals, health care facilities and coroners in accordance with the provisions of these regulations.
Firearm-related injuries (fatal or non-fatal) 120 days Sexual assault-related morbidity 60 days The Department shall also tabulate fatalities in persons less than 17 years of age, and fatalities that occur in association with pregnancy or for up to one year postpartum. These occurrences will be reviewed to compile potential risk factors. To accomplish this work, the Department may have access without patient consent to medical records of those cases for which an autopsy was not performed or was insufficient to fully determine risk factors for the death. To tabulate sexual assault-related morbidity and risk factors for such morbidity, the Department may, without patient consent, have access to and obtain information from pertinent patient medical, coroner, and laboratory records in the custody of physicians, hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and coroners, which are relevant and necessary. Information on cases of sexual assault morbidity that is voluntarily submitted by agencies providing services to victims of sexual assault or by law enforcement agencies shall be included as part of the public health investigation record of a case of sexual assault morbidity.
Regulation 2. Manner of Reporting, Information To Be Submitted, and Investigations To Confirm the Diagnosis and Causes of Morbidity and Mortality The diseases and conditions listed in Regulation 1 shall be reported to the Department of Health within the specified time frame after the diagnosis is made by the physician, health care provider, coroner, or hospital.
The information that shall be submitted for reportable causes of morbidity and mortality shall consist of the diagnosis; the patient's name, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and address; the name and address of responsible physician; the employer (for reportable work-related conditions as pertinent); and such other information as is needed by the Department to accurately compile and tabulate the causes of morbidity and mortality. The Board of Health determines that name and address of reported victims of sexual Code of Colorado Regulations 1 assault is not relevant or necessary to protect the public health and shall not be included in such case reports.
Reports on hospitalized patients may be made part of a report by the hospital as a whole. Investigations may be conducted to confirm the diagnosis and causes of reportable conditions in Regulation 1 and shall be considered official duties of the health department or health agency. Such investigations may include:
Regulation 3. Information sharing Whenever a local health department or health agency learns of a case of a reportable disease in Regulation 1, it shall notify the State Department of Health in a timely manner, usually within the timeframe for reporting in Regulation 1.
The State Department of Health shall, in turn, notify the appropriate local health department or agency in a timely manner, usually within the timeframe for reporting in Regulation 1, whenever it learns of a case of a disease reportable in Regulation 1.
These requirements shall not apply if the State and local health department or agency mutually agree not to share information on reported cases.
Sharing of medical information on persons with reportable diseases or illnesses as defined in Regulation 1 between authorized personnel of State and local health departments shall be restricted to information necessary for the treatment, control, investigation, and prevention of causes of morbidity and mortality dangerous to the public health.
Sharing of trade secrets; and confidential commercial, geological, or geophysical data shall be performed in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of the information. Regulation 4. Confidentiality All personal medical records and reports held by the State or local health department in compliance with these regulations shall be confidential information subject to C.R.S. 25-1-122(4). _________________________________________________________________________ Editor’s Notes History Code of Colorado Regulations 2