HB4047eng 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB4047 Engrossed LRB096 11708 RPM 22417 b

AN ACT concerning health.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Infectious Disease Notification Act.

Section 3. Definitions. For the purpose of this Act:

"Medical facility" means a hospital licensed under the Hospital Licensing Act or a free standing emergency center under the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act.

"Physician" means a person licensed under the Medical Practice Act of 1987 to practice medicine in all of its branches.

Section 5. Notification of designated officer.

(a) If a victim of an emergency is transported by emergency response employees to a medical facility and the medical facility makes a determination that the victim has an airborne infectious disease or any other communicable disease that in the judgment of a physician could have resulted in the transmission of that disease to an emergency response employee, then the medical facility shall notify the designated officer of the emergency response employees who transported the victim to the medical facility of the determination.

(b) If a victim of an emergency is transported by emergency response employees to a medical facility and the victim dies at or before reaching the medical facility, the medical facility ascertaining the cause of death shall notify the designated officer of the emergency response employees who transported the victim to the initial medical facility of any determination by the medical facility that the victim had an airborne infectious disease or communicable disease that in the judgment of a physician could have resulted in the transmission of that disease to an emergency response employee.

Section 10. Requests for notification.

(a) If an emergency response employee believes that the employee may have been exposed to an infectious disease by a victim of an emergency who was transported to a medical facility as a result of the emergency and if the employee attended, treated, assisted, or transported the victim pursuant to the emergency, then the designated officer of the employee shall, upon the request of the employee, carry out the duties described in subsection (b) of this Section concerning a determination of whether the employee may have been exposed to an infectious disease by the victim.

(b) The duties concerning a determination of whether the employee may have been exposed to an infectious disease by the victim are as follows:

(1) the designated officer involved shall collect the facts relating to the circumstances under which, for purposes of subsection (a) of this Section, the employee involved may have been exposed to an infectious disease; and

(2) the designated officer shall evaluate the facts and make a determination of whether, if the victim involved had any known infectious disease, the employee would have been exposed to the disease under such facts.

(c) If a designated officer makes a determination under item (2) of subsection (b) of this Section that an emergency response employee may have been exposed to an infectious disease, the designated officer shall submit to the medical facility to which the victim involved was transported a request for a response under subsection (d) of this Section concerning the victim of the emergency involved. The request shall be in writing and be signed by the designated officer involved, and shall contain a statement of the facts collected pursuant to item (1) of subsection (b).

(d) The procedures concerning an evaluation of and response to a request to a medical facility pursuant to this Act are as follows:

(1) If a medical facility receives a request under subsection (c) of this Section, then the medical facility shall evaluate the facts submitted in the request and make a determination of whether, on the basis of the medical information possessed by the facility regarding the victim involved and in the professional judgment of a physician, the emergency response employee was exposed to a known infectious disease and the exposure was of a type that could have resulted in transmission of the infectious disease to the emergency response employee.

(2) If a medical facility makes a determination under item (1) of this subsection (d) that the emergency response employee involved has been exposed to an infectious disease and the exposure was of a type that in the judgment of a physician could have resulted in the transmission of the infectious disease to the emergency response employee, then the medical facility shall, in writing, notify the designated officer who submitted the request of the determination. No personally identifiable health information may be released to the designated officer other than notification of the exposure to the infectious disease.

(3) If a medical facility makes a determination under item (1) of this subsection (d) that the emergency response employee involved has not been exposed to an infectious disease, or that the exposure was not of a type that in the judgment of a physician would have resulted in transmission of the infectious disease to the employee, then the medical facility shall, in writing, inform the designated officer who submitted the request of the determination.

Section 15. Rules. The Department of Public Health shall adopt rules that it deems necessary for the efficient administration of this Act.

Section 20. Relationship to other Acts. To the extent that the provisions of this Act conflict with any provision of the AIDS Confidentiality Act, the provisions of the AIDS Confidentiality Act shall control.