2023 New Jersey Revised Statutes › Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics › Section 26:3A2-20.5 - Duties of local overdose fatality review team.

26:3A2-20.5 Duties of local overdose fatality review team.
3. a. A local overdose fatality review team established pursuant to section 2 of this act shall:
(1) establish and implement appropriate protocols and procedures that allow the local teams to operate in accordance with applicable State and federal laws;
(2) elect, in accordance with the procedures established pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection and on an annual basis, a chair who shall be a member of the local team;
(3) collect, analyze, interpret, and maintain local data on overdose deaths, which information shall be maintained by the local team in accordance with all appropriate and industry-standard technical, administrative, and physical controls necessary to protect the privacy and security of the information;
(4) conduct, in accordance with Department of Health regulations and guidance, a multidisciplinary review of the information collected pursuant to this section regarding a decedent of a confirmed fatal drug overdose, as selected by the office of the county medical examiner in the county in which the overdose fatality was primarily investigated and at the direction of the Office of Chief State Medical Examiner, which review shall include, but need not be limited to:
(a) consideration of the decedent's points of contact with health care systems, social services, educational institutions, child and family services, the criminal justice system, including law enforcement, and any other systems with which the decedent had contact prior to death; and
(b) identification of the specific factors and social determinants of health that put the decedent at risk for an overdose;
(5) recommend prevention and intervention strategies to improve the coordination of services and investigations among member agencies in an effort to reduce overdose deaths;
(6) produce confidential case reports based on information received, which shall be transmitted to the Department of Health in a form and manner prescribed by the department. The reports and the data used therefor shall only be accessed by the department for public health purposes, in a form and format that is secured to prevent disclosure of personally identifiable information, in accordance with applicable State and federal laws; and
(7) submit to the Department of Health an annual report, in a manner prescribed the department, containing only de-identified data associated with the jurisdiction served by the local team, which reports may be made available to the public pursuant to P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.) and shall include, but need not be limited to:
(a) the total number of fatal overdoses that occurred within the jurisdiction of the local team;
(b) the number of fatal overdose cases investigated by the local overdose fatality team;
(c) any recommendations for action by State agencies, local agencies, or the Legislature for preventing fatal overdoses in this State; and
(d) any assessable results of any recommendations made by the local team, including, but not limited to, changes in local, county, or State law, policy, or funding made as a result of the local team's recommendations.
b. A local overdose fatality review team shall establish policies and procedures to ensure that all records in their possession containing personally identifiable information are properly handled and retained and are securely and permanently destroyed within one year of, or within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the Department of Health, after, the conclusion of a local team's review of a decedent's case. The annual report and other public records shall be destroyed in accordance to the requirements of P.L.1953, c.410 (C.47:3-15 et seq.).
c. A local team may only request, collect, analyze, and share information for public health purposes directly related to the review of confirmed fatal drug overdoses and, except as otherwise provided in this act, in compliance with all applicable State and federal laws or regulations.
L.2021, c.430, s.3.