Massachusetts § 111C - Unprotected exposure capable of transmitting infectious disease; standardized trip form

§ 111C. Unprotected exposure capable of transmitting infectious disease; standardized trip form

Section 111C. Any person, including without limitation, a police officer, fire fighter, emergency medical technician, corrections officer, ambulance operator or attendant who, while acting in his professional capacity, attends, assists, or transports a person or deceased person to a health care facility licensed under section fifty-one of chapter one hundred and eleven, and who sustains an unprotected exposure capable of transmitting an infectious disease dangerous to the public health, shall immediately, upon arrival at such facility, provide to the admitting agent or other appropriate employee of the said facility a standardized trip form. The department shall prepare and distribute said standardized trip form, which shall include, but need not be limited to the names of persons who believe they have had such unprotected exposure, and the manner in which such exposure occurred.

''Infectious diseases dangerous to the public health'' shall be defined by department regulations which shall be promulgated pursuant to this section.

''Unprotected exposure capable of transmitting an infectious disease dangerous to the public health'' shall be defined in regulations promulgated by the department and shall include, but not be limited to, instances of direct mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, or the co-mingling of the blood of the patient and the person who has transported the patient to the health care facility.

Any health care facility licensed under section fifty-one of chapter one hundred and eleven which, after receiving a transported individual or deceased person, diagnoses the individual or deceased person as having an infectious disease dangerous to the public health as defined pursuant to the provisions of this section, shall notify orally within forty-eight hours after making such a diagnosis, and in writing within seventy-two hours of such diagnosis, any individual listed on the trip report who has sustained an unprotected exposure which, in the opinion of the health care facility is capable of transmitting such disease. Such response shall include, but not be limited to, the appropriate medical precautions and treatments which should be taken by the party who has sustained the unprotected exposure; provided, however, that the identity of the patient suspected of having such disease shall not be released in such response, and shall be kept confidential in accordance with the provisions of section seventy. The department shall determine the method by which the response to the trip report is conveyed, and shall assure the patient or deceased person's legal representative or next of kin, if there is no legal representative is informed of those individuals who have been notified of his disease pursuant to this section, and that the response is directed only to those parties who have sustained an unprotected exposure to an infectious disease.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any general law or special law to the contrary, no hospital, or agent, employee, administrator, doctor, official or other representative of said reporting institution shall be held jointly or severally liable either as an institution, or personally, for reporting pursuant to the requirements of this section, if such report was made in good faith. All such parties, provided they have operated in good faith, shall otherwise be afforded total immunity from civil or criminal liability as a result of fulfilling the provisions of this section or the regulations promulgated in accordance with this section.