6 Colo. Code Regs. § 1009-5 Regulation 6

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 11, June 10, 2024

Regulation Regulation 6 - Preparations by Public Health Nursing Services for an Emergency Epidemic

1. Each local health officer and county public health nursing service in this state subject to Section 25-1-601et seq., C.R.S., is required to maintain an up-to-date notification list for an emergency epidemic. The list shall include general or critical access hospitals and the local emergency management agencies within the jurisdiction of the local health officer and county public health nursing service. The local health officer and county public health nursing service is required to conduct notification tests by a broadcast fax or another communications method for rapid notification at least twice per year.

2. Each local health officer and county public health nursing service in this state subject to Section 25-1-601et seq., C.R.S., must sign a uniform mutual aid agreement with all other county and district public health departments and local health officers and county public health nursing services subject to Section 25-1-501 and 25-1-601et seq., C.R.S., that obligates the county or district public health department and local health officers and county public health nursing services to render aid during an emergency epidemic unless the county district public health department or local health officer and county public health nursing service needs to withhold resources necessary to provide reasonable protection for its own jurisdiction.

3. Each local health officer and county public health nursing service subject to Section 25-1-601et seq., C.R.S., shall prepare a plan that will be implemented when the governor declares a disaster emergency that is the result of an occurrence or imminent threat of an emergency epidemic. The plan must be able to be integrated with the Local Emergency Operations Plan(s) (LEOP) and the regional Public Health Preparedness and Response Plan. In addition, the local health officers and county public health nursing services shall provide a copy of the plan submitted pursuant to these regulations to the local offices of emergency management, to all general or critical access hospitals, and to all regional emergency medical and trauma services advisory councils within the jurisdiction of the public health nursing service.

The plan shall address the following areas:

A) Organization and assignment of potentially all employees of the public health nursing service under an approved incident management system to work on controlling the emergency epidemic;

B) Having sufficient supplies and a process for the provision of personal protective equipment against bacterial and viral infections to public health nursing services employees who are assigned to work in areas where they may be exposed to ill and contagious persons or to infectious agents and waste; personal protective equipment shall, at a minimum, be the equipment and supplies used to achieve standard precautions;

C) Procurement and storage of at least five days supply of doxycycline or other antibiotic, as determined by the state health department, to be used as chemoprophylaxis for all public health nursing services employees. The plan shall include procurement of another antibiotic for a small number of public health nursing services employees who may be unable to take doxycycline;

D) An emergency, after-hours call-down list of persons who may be needed to organize and respond to an emergency epidemic; such list shall include persons with experience and training in communicable disease epidemiology;

E) Provide staffing to and participation in activities of the local emergency operations center (s) for the purpose of (i) centralizing telephone, radio, and other electronic communications; (ii) compiling surveillance data; and (iii) maintaining a log of operations, decisions, resources, and orders necessary to control the epidemic;

F) Creation of a system or participation in an organized system to:

(i) monitor the situation, including infection control, in each hospital within the public health nursing service's jurisdiction, doing this on-site as necessary and with assistance from the state health department as appropriate;

(ii) assess and manage infection control in the community outside of the hospital; and

(iii) assess and manage, in coordination with hospitals and the county coroner, the disposal of human corpses;

G) The organization, staffing, security, and logistics of the distribution and delivery of antibiotics, antiviral medications, vaccines, or other medications needed in an emergency epidemic following the provisions of State Emergency Function #8, "Health, Medical and Mortuary";

H) Identification of public spokespersons responsible for providing information to the citizens of their jurisdiction about how to protect themselves, what actions are being taken to control the epidemic, and when the epidemic is over; and

I) Implementation of a back-up communications system that will allow communication with the local emergency response structure if and when telephone communications are disabled or not functioning;

6 CCR 1009-5 Regulation 6

38 CR 15, August 10, 2015, effective 9/14/2015

42 CR 08, April 10, 2019, effective 5/15/2019

46 CR 06, March 25, 2023, effective 2/15/2023

46 CR 10, May 25, 2023, effective 6/14/2023