Cal. HSC § 1797.189 — California Code / Code hsc / Division 2.5 / Chapter 3 / Article 5 / Section 1797.189
Section 1797.189
Status: in_force

(a)  As used in this section:

(1)  “Chief medical examiner-coroner” means the chief medical examiner or the coroner as referred to in subdivision (m) of Section 24000, Section 24010, subdivisions (k), (m), and (n) of Section 24300, subdivisions (k), (m), and (n) of Section 24304, and Sections 27460 to 27530, inclusive, of the Government Code, and Section 102850.

(2)  “Prehospital emergency medical care person or personnel” means any of the following: authorized registered nurse or mobile intensive care nurse, emergency medical technician-I, emergency medical technician-II, emergency medical technician-paramedic, lifeguard, firefighter, or peace officer, as defined or described by Sections 1797.56, 1797.80, 1797.82, 1797.84, 1797.182, and 1797.183, respectively, or a physician and surgeon who provides prehospital emergency medical care or rescue services.

(3)  “Reportable disease or condition” or “a disease or condition listed as reportable” means those diseases specified in Subchapter 1 (commencing with Section 2500) of Chapter 4 of Title 17 of the California Administrative Code, as may be amended from time to time.

(4)  “Exposed” means at risk for contracting a disease, as defined by regulations of the state department.

(5)  “Health facility” means a health facility, as defined in Section 1250, including a publicly operated facility.

(b)  Any prehospital emergency medical care personnel, whether volunteers, partly paid, or fully paid who have provided emergency medical or rescue services and have been exposed to a person afflicted with a disease or condition listed as reportable, that can, as determined by the county health officer, be transmitted through oral contact or secretions of the body, including blood, shall be notified that they have been exposed to the disease and should contact the county health officer if all of the following conditions are met:

(1)  The prehospital emergency medical care person, who has rendered emergency medical or rescue services and has been exposed to a person afflicted with a reportable disease or condition, provides the chief medical examiner-coroner with his or her name and telephone number at the time the patient is transferred from that prehospital medical care person to the chief medical examiner-coroner; or the party transporting the person afflicted with the reportable disease or condition provides that chief medical examiner-coroner with the name and telephone number of the prehospital emergency medical care person who provided the emergency medical or rescue services.

(2)  The chief medical examiner-coroner reports the name and telephone number of the prehospital emergency medical care person to the county health officer upon determining that the person to whom the prehospital emergency medical care person provided the emergency medical or rescue services is diagnosed as being afflicted with a reportable disease or condition.

(c)  The county health officer shall immediately notify the prehospital emergency medical care person who has provided emergency medical or rescue services and has been exposed to a person afflicted with a disease or condition listed as reportable, that can, as determined by the county health officer, be transmitted through oral contact or secretions of the body, including blood, upon receiving the report from a health facility pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b). The county health officer shall not disclose the name of the patient or other identifying characteristics to the prehospital emergency medical care person.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the further disclosure of confidential medical information by the chief medical examiner-coroner or any of the prehospital emergency medical care personnel described in this section except as otherwise authorized by law.

The chief medical examiner-coroner, or the county health officer shall notify the funeral director, charged with removing or receiving the decedent afflicted with a reportable disease or condition from the chief medical examiner-coroner, of the reportable disease prior to the release of the decedent from the chief medical examiner-coroner to the funeral director.

Notwithstanding Section 1798.206, violation of this section is not a misdemeanor.