Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 50, December 13, 2024
Section 64-7-2 - Definitions2.1. Animal health care providers - Veterinarians or veterinary technicians or other individuals providing health care to animals. 2.2 Automatic reporting capability - The ability of an electronic laboratory reporting system to report laboratory findings through an electronic interfaceusing HL7 messaging such that data is automatically transferred from a laboratory database to the West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WVEDSS) without human intervention.2.3. Biological toxin - Toxin produced by microorganisms, including botulinium toxin or toxins of Staphylococcus aureus or Clostridium perfringens; or toxic products or byproducts of higher plants or animals, such as ricin.2.4. Bioterrorism Agent - Infectious agent or biological toxin deliberately introduced into the food, air, water or other part of the environment; or directly into an animal or human with the criminal intent of causing disease in animals or humans.2.5. Bioterrorist event - The occurrence of a case of disease or a disease outbreak due to a bioterrorism agent; or attempted exposure of one or more individuals to a bioterrorism agent.2.6. Bureau - The Bureau for public health of the West Virginia department of health and human resources.2.7. Case - An occurrence of disease in a human or animal which meets a specific case definition listed in the West Virginia Reportable Diseases Protocol Manual or a case definition approved by the Commissioner. (Manual is available online at www.dide.wv.gov)2.8. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - The Federal agency responsible for providing health coverage for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and promoting quality of care for these beneficiaries.2.9. Cluster - An aggregation of cases of disease in time and place with or without exceeding the expected number of cases; frequently the expected number of cases is not known. 2.10. Commissioner - The Commissioner of the Bureau for public health of the West Virginia department of health and human resources or his or her designee.2.11. Communicable Disease - A disease caused by an infectious agent or its toxic products, which is transmitted, directly or indirectly, to a susceptible host from an infected person, animal, arthropod, environmental exposure or other source.2.12. Department - The West Virginia department of health and human resources.2.13. Electronic laboratory reporting - Reporting of laboratory data to the West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WVEDSS) by use of HL7 messaging standards.2.14. Extensible Markup Language (XML) - A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.2.15. Epidemic - An outbreak or the occurrence of more cases of disease than expected in a given area among a specific group of people over a particular period of time.2.16. Epidemiologic Information - Medical and risk factordata or other information, interviews, investigative reports, other records and notes collected during the course of an epidemiologic investigation of a disease, condition, or outbreak.2.17. Epidemiologic Investigation - An investigation to determine the distribution, determinants and risk factors for disease in a specified population, for the purpose of prevention or control of the disease in the population; or to evaluate prevention and control efforts; or for increased understanding of the effects of the disease on the population.2.18. Foodborne outbreak - An incident in which two or more persons experience a similar illness after ingestion of a common food, and epidemiologic analysis implicates the food as the source of the illness.2.19. Health care provider - Any physician, dentist, nurse, or other individual who provides medical, dental, nursing, or other health care services of any kind to individuals.2.20. Health care facility - Any hospital, nursing home, clinic, cancer treatment center, laboratory, or other facility which provides health care or diagnostic services to individuals, whether public or privately owned.2.21. Health level 7 (HL7) messaging - Consensus standards for sharing electronic clinical and administrative data between health information systems. HL7 standards are found at: http://hl7.org.2.22. Health or Safety Emergency - As defined under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act's (FERPA) health or safety emergency provision. "Health or Safety Emergency Situation" may include an outbreak of infectious disease occurring in a school or a case of reportable disease in a school that may be transmitted by casual contact in a school or community setting.2.23. Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) - Infections caused by a wide variety of common and unusual bacteria, fungi and viruses during the course of receiving medical care.2.24. Hospital - A facility licensed as a hospital under WV Division of Health Legislative Rule, Hospital Licensure, 64 CSR 12.2.25. Infectious Agent - A biological organism such as a bacteria, parasite or virus; or a bacterial toxin; or a prion capable of causing disease in animals or man when introduced into the individual through water, air, food, the environment or by the percutaneous or other route.2.26. Intentional Exposure - The deliberate introduction of a harmful agent into the air, water, food or environment of an individual or group of individuals with the intent of causing disease.2.27. International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) - A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2005 and dedicated to the improvement of population health by advancing the science and practice of disease surveillance. Information is available at: http://www.syndromic.org /.2.28. Isolate - A pure culture of a bacteria, usually identified by a clinical laboratory from culture of a specimen from a patient. Isolates are usually stored on an agar plate or slant or in nutrient broth.2.29. Isolation - The separation of infected persons or animals from other persons or animals, under the necessary time frame and conditions to prevent the direct or indirect transmission of the infectious agent from the infected persons or animals to other persons or animals who are susceptible or who may spread the disease to others.2.30. Laboratory - Any licensedfacility or place, however named, for the biologic, microbiologic, serologic, virologic, chemical, hematologic, immuno-hematologic, biophysical, cytologic, pathologic, genetic, molecularor other examination of materials for the purpose of providing medical or epidemiologic information for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease, or the assessment of the health of human beings. The term "laboratory" includes both public and private laboratories, free-standing laboratories, and hospital laboratories.2.31. Law Enforcement Personnel - Any person who is employed by a local, county, state or federal agency with law enforcement responsibilities.2.32. Local Board of Health - A board of health serving one or more counties, one or more municipalities, or a combination thereof.2.33. Local Health Department - The staff of the local board of health.2.34. Local Health Officer - The individual who fulfills the duties and responsibilities of the health officer for a local board of health, or his or her designee.2.35. Medical Information - Data or other information regarding the history, examination, radiological orlaboratory findings, diagnosis, treatment, or other clinical care for a person examined or treated for a suspected or actual disease.2.36. National Healthcare Surveillance Network (NHSN) - A secure, internet-based surveillance system for patient and healthcare personnel safety systems managed by the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (hereinafter CDC). Enrollment is open to all types of health care facilities in the United States, including acute care hospitals, long term acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient dialysis centers, ambulatory surgery centers and long term care facilities. NHSN can accept retrospective reports beginning with January of the year that the facility first enrolled in NHSN.2.37. Nursing Home - Any facility licensed as a nursing home under WV Legislative Rule, Nursing Home Licensure, 64CSR13, or any extended care facility operated in conjunction with a hospital.2.38. Outbreak - The occurrence of more cases of disease than expected in a given area among a specific group of people over a particular period of time or an epidemic.2.39. OLS - The office of laboratory services in the Bureau.2.40. Physician - An individual licensed to practice medicine by either the board of medicine or the board of osteopathy.2.41. Placarding - The posting on a home, building or other structure of a sign or notice warning of the presence of a communicable disease or other health hazard and the danger of the disease or hazard within or beyond the placarded home, building or structure.2.42. Prevention collaborative - A group of health care facilities that are engaged in an effort to reduce Healthcare Associated Infections (hereinafter HAI). Members of the collaborative use a common, though not necessarily identical, approach. The members discuss progress regularly and share lessons learned in real time so that others in the group can benefit from the experience of each facility.2.43. Quarantine - The limitation of freedom of movement of persons or animals in a time frame and manner to prevent contacts that could lead to spread of disease.2.44. Real time electronic feed - Automated electronic reporting, usually of laboratory results, such that electronic laboratory reports are routinely delivered to the Bureau within no more than 24 hours after results are available.2.45. Reportable Disease or Condition - Any disease or condition required to be reported by this rule.2.46. STD - Sexually transmitted disease.2.47. Surveillance - The systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health data on an ongoing basis, to gain knowledge of the pattern of disease occurrence and potential in a community; or to understand the disease patterns in the community in order to control and prevent disease in the community, or to evaluate prevention and control efforts.2.48. Surveillance Region - A grouping of counties for the purposes of aggregating surveillance data and providing coverage by a regional epidemiologist. Surveillance regions are usually self-selected by the counties and are listed at: www.dide.wv.gov.2.49. Syndromic surveillance - Systematic collection of data from the point of care, usually based on chief complaint data, often without a definitive diagnosis, for the purpose of supplementing other sources of surveillance data.2.50. Validated Submitter - A laboratory whose transmission of electronic laboratory data to WVHIN or WVEDSS by HL7 messaging has been validated by the Commissioner. Validation involves submission of paper and electronic copies of laboratory data until it is established that electronic reporting is at least as accurate and complete as paper-based reporting.2.51. Veterinarian - A doctor of veterinary medicine.2.52. Waterborne outbreak - An incident in which two or more persons experience a similar illness after consumption or use of water and epidemiologic evidence implicates the water as the source of the illness.2.53. WVEDSS - West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System - An electronic data system for reporting and tracking cases of infectious diseases reported from local health departments and laboratories to the bureau and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). WVEDSS is part of the national electronic disease surveillance system (NEDSS). WVEDSS may use either HL7 or XML data formats.2.54. WVHIN - West Virginia Health Information Network - An electronic system for data exchange operated by the West Virginia Healthcare Authority for the purpose of exchanging information between laboratories, health providers and health facilities. WVHIN is capable of receiving HL7 messaging through a real time data feed.2.55. WVSIIS - West Virginia Statewide Immunization Information System - An electronic registry of immunization information for children and adults for the purpose of maintaining an integrated immunization record for all people in the state. WVSIIS data may bemade available to immunization providers, health care providers, public health investigators and school personnel to search immunization records for school entry requirements, with appropriate limits on access. The administration of adult immunization should also be reported to WVSIIS.2.56. Zoonotic disease -Adisease that is potentially transmitted to humans by direct or indirect contact with animals or animal products or by exposure to animals or animal products.