R612-300-13. HIV, Hepatitis B and C Testing and Reporting for Emergency Medical Service Providers

  A. Purpose and Authority. This rule, established pursuant to U.C.A. Section 78B-8-404, establishes procedures for testing and reporting following a significant exposure of an emergency medical services provider to infectious diseases.

  B. Definitions. In addition to the terms defined in Section 78B-8-401, the following definitions apply for purposes of this rule.

  1. Contact means designated person(s) within the emergency medical services agency or the employer of the emergency medical services provider.

  2. Emergency medical services (EMS) agency means an agency, entity, or organization that employs or utilizes emergency medical services providers as defined in (4) as employees or volunteers.

  3. Source Patient means any individual cared for by a pre-hospital emergency medical services provider, including but not limited to victims of accidents or injury, deceased persons, prisoners or persons in the custody of the Department of Corrections, a county correctional facility, or a public law enforcement entity.

  4. Receiving facility means a hospital, health care or other facility where the patient is delivered by the emergency medical services provider for care.

  C. Emergency Medical Services Provider Responsibility.

  1. The EMS provider shall document and report all significant exposures to the receiving facility and contact as defined in C.2.

  2. The reporting process is as follows:

  a. The exposed EMS provider shall complete the Exposure Report Form (ERF) at the time the patient is delivered to the receiving facility and provide a copy to the person at the receiving facility authorized by the facility to receive the form. In the event the exposed EMS provider does not accompany the source patient to the receiving facility, he/she may report the exposure incident, with information requested on the ERF, by telephone to a person authorized by the facility to receive the form. In this event, the exposed EMS provider shall nevertheless submit a written copy of the ERF within three days to an authorized person of the receiving facility.

  b. The exposed EMS provider shall, within three days of the incident, submit a copy of the ERF to the contact as defined in C.2.

  D. Receiving Facility Responsibility.

  1. The receiving facility shall establish a system to receive ERFs as well as telephoned reports from exposed EMS providers on a 24-hour per day basis. The facility shall also have available or on call, trained pre-test counselors for the purpose of obtaining consent and counseling of source patients when HIV testing has been requested by EMS providers. The receiving facility shall contact the source patient prior to release from the facility to provide the individual with counseling or, if unable to provide counseling, provide the source patient with phone numbers for a trained counselor to provide the counseling within 24 hours.

  2. Upon notification of exposure, the receiving facility shall request permission from the source patient to draw a blood sample for disease testing. In conjunction with this request, the source patient must be advised of his/her right to refuse testing and be advised that if he/she refuses to be tested that fact will be forwarded to the EMS agency or employer of EMS provider. The source patient shall also be advised that if he/she refuses to be tested, the EMS agency or provider may seek a court order to compel the source patient to submit to a blood draw for the disease testing.

  Testing is authorized only when the source patient, his/her next of kin or legal guardian consents to testing, with the exception that consent is not required from an individual who has been convicted of a crime and is in the custody or under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections, a county correctional facility, a public law enforcement entity, or if the source patient is dead. If consent is denied, the receiving facility shall complete the ERF and send it to the EMS agency or employer of the EMS provider. If consent is received, the receiving facility shall draw a sample of the source patient's blood and send it, along with the ERF, to a qualified laboratory for testing.

  3. The laboratory that the receiving facility has sent source patient's blood draw to shall send the disease test results, by Case ID number, to the EMS agency or employer of the EMS provider.

  F. EMS Agency/Employer Responsibility:

  1. The EMS agency/employer, upon receipt of the disease tests, from the receiving facility laboratory, shall immediately report the result, by case number, not name, to the exposed EMS provider.

  2. The EMS agency/employer, upon the receipt of refusal of testing by the source, shall report that refusal to the EMS provider.

  3. The agency/employer or its insurance carrier shall pay for the EMS provider and the source patient testing for the covered diseases per the Labor Commission fee schedule.

  4. The EMS agency/employer shall maintain the records of any disease exposures contained in this rule per the OSHA Blood Borne Pathogen standards.