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Iowa Code (Last Updated: December 05, 2016) |
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Title IV. PUBLIC HEALTH |
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Chapter 135. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH |
Section 135.22. Central registry for brain or spinal cord injuries.
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1. As used in this section:
a. “Brain injury” means clinically evident damage to the brain resulting directly or indirectly from trauma, infection, anoxia, vascular lesions, or tumor of the brain, not primarily related to a degenerative disease or aging process, which temporarily or permanently impairs a person’s physical, cognitive, or behavioral functions, and is diagnosed by a physician. The diagnoses of clinically evident damage to the brain used for a diagnosis of brain injury shall be the same as specified by rule for eligibility for the home and community-based services waiver for persons with brain injury under the medical assistance program.
b. “Spinal cord injury” means the occurrence of an acute traumatic lesion of neural elements in the spinal cord including the spinal cord and cauda equina, resulting in temporary or permanent sensory deficit, motor deficit, or bladder or bowel dysfunction.
2. The director shall establish and maintain a central registry of persons with brain or spinal cord injuries in order to facilitate prevention strategies and the provision of appropriate rehabilitative services to the persons by the department and other state agencies. Hospitals shall report patients who are admitted with a brain or spinal cord injury and their diagnoses to the director no later than forty-five days after the close of a quarter in which the patient was discharged. The report shall contain the name, age, and residence of the person, the date, type, and cause of the brain or spinal cord injury, and additional information as the director requires, except that where available, hospitals shall report the Glasgow coma scale. The director shall consult with health care providers concerning the availability of additional relevant information. The department shall maintain the confidentiality of all information which would identify any person named in a report. However, the identifying information may be released for bona fide research purposes if the confidentiality of the identifying information is maintained by the researchers, or the identifying information may be released by the person with the brain or spinal cord injury or by the person’s guardian or, if the person is a minor, by the person’s parent or guardian.