16 Del. Admin. Code § 4202-4.0

Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 7, January 1, 2025

Section 4202-4.0 - Persons and Institutions Required to Report

4.1 Health Care Providers

4.1.1 Reports required by Sections 2.0 and 3.0 shall be made to the Division Director or designee by the following:

4.1.1.1 Any health care provider who diagnoses or suspects the existence of any disease required to be reported; or

4.1.1.2 The medical examiner in such cases that the medical examiner examines.

4.2 Hospitals

4.2.1 The chief administrative officer of each civilian hospital, long-term care facility, or other patient-care facility shall (and the United States military and Veterans Administration Hospitals are requested to) appoint an individual from the staff, hereinafter referred to as "reporting officer," who shall be responsible for reporting cases or suspect cases of diseases on the reportable disease list in persons admitted to, attended to, or residing in the facility.

4.2.2 Reporting of a case or suspect case of a reportable disease by a hospital fulfills the requirements of the health care provider to report; however, it is the responsibility of the attending practitioner to ensure that the report is made pursuant to subsection 4.1.

4.2.3 The hospital reporting officer shall also report to the Division Director or designee communicable diseases not specified in Section 2.0, should the disease occur in a nosocomial disease outbreak situation that may significantly impact the public health. Such reports shall be made within 24 hours of the recognition of such a situation.

4.2.4 Hospitals shall make a good effort to meet the technologic standards provided by the Division to report reportable diseases electronically per subsection 2.5 and syndromic surveillance data per subsection 2.6. Hospitals meeting said standards shall use this method of reporting.

4.3 Laboratories

4.3.1 Any person in charge of a clinical or hospital laboratory or other facilities in which a laboratory examination of any specimen derived from a human body and submitted for examination shall share with the DPHL specimens or culture results for agents causing certain diseases listed in the Appendices of this regulation. In addition, such laboratories shall report to the Division of Public Health results of laboratory examinations of specimens indicating or suggesting the existence of:

4.3.1.1 A reportable disease;

4.3.1.2 A suspected agent of bioterrorism immediately upon receipt of the results; or

4.3.1.3 Any other potential agent or specimen that may be the cause of an outbreak or public health emergency immediately upon receipt of the results.

4.3.2 The Director or designee may contact the patient or the potential contacts so identified from laboratory reports only after consulting with the attending practitioner, when the practitioner is known and when said consultation will not delay the timely control of a communicable disease.

4.3.3 Reporting of antibiotic resistant organisms.

4.3.3.1 Any person in charge of a clinical or hospital laboratory, or other facility in which a laboratory examination of any specimen derived from a human body and submitted for microbiologic examination yields a non-susceptible species of microorganism identified in Appendix I by (A), will report the infected person's name, address, date of birth, race, ethnicity, sex, site of isolation, date of isolation and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Zone of Inhibition (MIC/Zone) diameter to the Division of Public Health.

4.3.3.2 Upon request, the Division may waive the requirement for the reporting of said demographic information until such time that electronic reporting facilitates its reporting.

4.3.3.3 The number of susceptible and non-susceptible isolates of any of these organisms shall be reported monthly to the Division of Public Health.

4.3.4 Laboratories authorized to report reportable diseases electronically per subsection 2.5, shall use this method of reporting.

4.4 Others

4.4.1 In addition to those who are required to report reportable diseases, the following individuals are requested and authorized to notify the Division Director or designee of the name and address of any person in the individual's family, care, employ, class, jurisdiction, or custody of control, who is suspected of being afflicted with a reportable disease although no health care provider, as in subsection 4.1 of this regulation, has been consulted:

4.4.1.1 Every parent, guardian, householder;

4.4.1.2 Every midwife;

4.4.1.3 Every superintendent, principal, teacher, or counselor of a public or private school;

4.4.1.4 Every administrator of a public or private institution of higher learning;

4.4.1.5 Every owner, operator, or teacher of a child care facility;

4.4.1.6 Every owner or manager of a dairy, restaurant, or food storage, food-processing establishment, or food outlet;

4.4.1.7 Every superintendent or manager of a public or private camp, home, or institution; and

4.4.1.8 Every director or supervisor of a military installation, military or Veterans Administration hospital, prison, or juvenile detention center.

16 Del. Admin. Code § 4202-4.0

9 DE Reg. 1188 (02/01/06)
17 DE Reg. 320 (9/1/2013)
22 DE Reg. 1012 (6/1/2019)
23 DE Reg. 665 (2/1/2020)
24 DE Reg. 791 (2/1/2021)
27 DE Reg. 863 (5/1/2024) (Final)