1. As used in this section:
a. "Brain injury" means the occurrence of injury to the head not primarily related to a degenerative disease or aging process that is documented in a medical record with one or more of the following conditions attributed to the head injury:
(1) An observed or self-reported decreased level of consciousness.
(2) Amnesia.
(3) A skull fracture.
(4) An objective neurological or neuropsychological abnormality.
(5) A diagnosed intracranial lesion.
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.
89 Acts, ch 320, § 10; 92 Acts, ch 1237, § 6; 94 Acts, ch 1068, §3; 99 Acts, ch 141, §3
Referred to in § 135.22A, 335.25, 414.22
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