W. Va. Code R. § 64-7-2 - Definitions
2.1. Animal health
care providers - Veterinarians or veterinary technicians or other individuals
providing health care to animals.
2.2 Automatic reporting capability - The
ability of an electronic laboratory reporting system to report laboratory
findings through an electronic interfaceusing HL7 messaging such that data is
automatically transferred from a laboratory database to the West Virginia
Health Information Network (WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease
Surveillance System (WVEDSS) without human
intervention.
2.3. Biological toxin
- Toxin produced by microorganisms, including botulinium toxin or toxins of
Staphylococcus aureus or Clostridium perfringens; or toxic products or
byproducts of higher plants or animals, such as ricin.
2.4. Bioterrorism Agent - Infectious agent or
biological toxin deliberately introduced into the food, air, water or other
part of the environment; or directly into an animal or human with the criminal
intent of causing disease in animals or humans.
2.5. Bioterrorist event - The occurrence of a
case of disease or a disease outbreak due to a bioterrorism agent; or attempted
exposure of one or more individuals to a bioterrorism agent.
2.6. Bureau - The Bureau for public health of
the West Virginia department of health and human resources.
2.7. Case - An occurrence of disease in a
human or animal which meets a specific case definition listed in the West
Virginia Reportable Diseases Protocol Manual or a case definition approved by
the Commissioner. (Manual is available online at www.dide.wv.gov)
2.8. Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) - The Federal agency responsible for providing health coverage
for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and promoting quality of care for these
beneficiaries.
2.9. Cluster - An
aggregation of cases of disease in time and place with or without exceeding the
expected number of cases; frequently the expected number of cases is not known.
2.10. Commissioner - The
Commissioner of the Bureau for public health of the West Virginia department of
health and human resources or his or her designee.
2.11. Communicable Disease - A disease caused
by an infectious agent or its toxic products, which is transmitted, directly or
indirectly, to a susceptible host from an infected person, animal, arthropod,
environmental exposure or other source.
2.12. Department - The West Virginia
department of health and human resources.
2.13. Electronic laboratory reporting -
Reporting of laboratory data to the West Virginia Health Information Network
(WVHIN) or the West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (WVEDSS) by
use of HL7 messaging standards.
2.14. Extensible Markup Language (XML) - A
markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format
that is both human-readable and machine-readable.
2.15. Epidemic - An outbreak or the
occurrence of more cases of disease than expected in a given area among a
specific group of people over a particular period of time.
2.16. Epidemiologic Information - Medical and
risk factordata or other information, interviews, investigative reports, other
records and notes collected during the course of an epidemiologic investigation
of a disease, condition, or outbreak.
2.17. Epidemiologic Investigation - An
investigation to determine the distribution, determinants and risk factors for
disease in a specified population, for the purpose of prevention or control of
the disease in the population; or to evaluate prevention and control efforts;
or for increased understanding of the effects of the disease on the
population.
2.18. Foodborne
outbreak - An incident in which two or more persons experience a similar
illness after ingestion of a common food, and epidemiologic analysis implicates
the food as the source of the illness.
2.19. Health care provider - Any physician,
dentist, nurse, or other individual who provides medical, dental, nursing, or
other health care services of any kind to individuals.
2.20. Health care facility - Any hospital,
nursing home, clinic, cancer treatment center, laboratory, or other facility
which provides health care or diagnostic services to individuals, whether
public or privately owned.
2.21.
Health level 7 (HL7) messaging - Consensus standards for sharing electronic
clinical and administrative data between health information systems. HL7
standards are found at: http://hl7.org.
2.22. Health or Safety Emergency - As defined
under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act's (FERPA) health or safety
emergency provision. "Health or Safety Emergency Situation" may include an
outbreak of infectious disease occurring in a school or a case of reportable
disease in a school that may be transmitted by casual contact in a school or
community setting.
2.23. Healthcare
Associated Infection (HAI) - Infections caused by a wide variety of common and
unusual bacteria, fungi and viruses during the course of receiving medical
care.
2.24. Hospital - A facility
licensed as a hospital under WV Division of Health Legislative Rule, Hospital
Licensure, 64 CSR 12.
2.25.
Infectious Agent - A biological organism such as a bacteria, parasite or virus;
or a bacterial toxin; or a prion capable of causing disease in animals or man
when introduced into the individual through water, air, food, the environment
or by the percutaneous or other route.
2.26. Intentional Exposure - The deliberate
introduction of a harmful agent into the air, water, food or environment of an
individual or group of individuals with the intent of causing
disease.
2.27. International
Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) - A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
founded in 2005 and dedicated to the improvement of population health by
advancing the science and practice of disease surveillance. Information is
available at: http://www.syndromic.org /.
2.28. Isolate - A pure culture of a bacteria,
usually identified by a clinical laboratory from culture of a specimen from a
patient. Isolates are usually stored on an agar plate or slant or in nutrient
broth.
2.29. Isolation - The
separation of infected persons or animals from other persons or animals, under
the necessary time frame and conditions to prevent the direct or indirect
transmission of the infectious agent from the infected persons or animals to
other persons or animals who are susceptible or who may spread the disease to
others.
2.30. Laboratory - Any
licensedfacility or place, however named, for the biologic, microbiologic,
serologic, virologic, chemical, hematologic, immuno-hematologic, biophysical,
cytologic, pathologic, genetic, molecularor other examination of materials for
the purpose of providing medical or epidemiologic information for the
diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease, or the assessment of the
health of human beings. The term "laboratory" includes both public and private
laboratories, free-standing laboratories, and hospital laboratories.
2.31. Law Enforcement Personnel - Any person
who is employed by a local, county, state or federal agency with law
enforcement responsibilities.
2.32.
Local Board of Health - A board of health serving one or more counties, one or
more municipalities, or a combination thereof.
2.33. Local Health Department - The staff of
the local board of health.
2.34.
Local Health Officer - The individual who fulfills the duties and
responsibilities of the health officer for a local board of health, or his or
her designee.
2.35. Medical
Information - Data or other information regarding the history, examination,
radiological orlaboratory findings, diagnosis, treatment, or other clinical
care for a person examined or treated for a suspected or actual
disease.
2.36. National Healthcare
Surveillance Network (NHSN) - A secure, internet-based surveillance system for
patient and healthcare personnel safety systems managed by the Division of
Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (hereinafter CDC). Enrollment is open to all types of health care
facilities in the United States, including acute care hospitals, long term
acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals,
outpatient dialysis centers, ambulatory surgery centers and long term care
facilities. NHSN can accept retrospective reports beginning with January of the
year that the facility first enrolled in NHSN.
2.37. Nursing Home - Any facility licensed as
a nursing home under WV Legislative Rule, Nursing Home Licensure, 64CSR13, or
any extended care facility operated in conjunction with a hospital.
2.38. Outbreak - The occurrence of more cases
of disease than expected in a given area among a specific group of people over
a particular period of time or an epidemic.
2.39. OLS - The office of laboratory services
in the Bureau.
2.40. Physician - An
individual licensed to practice medicine by either the board of medicine or the
board of osteopathy.
2.41.
Placarding - The posting on a home, building or other structure of a sign or
notice warning of the presence of a communicable disease or other health hazard
and the danger of the disease or hazard within or beyond the placarded home,
building or structure.
2.42.
Prevention collaborative - A group of health care facilities that are engaged
in an effort to reduce Healthcare Associated Infections (hereinafter HAI).
Members of the collaborative use a common, though not necessarily identical,
approach. The members discuss progress regularly and share lessons learned in
real time so that others in the group can benefit from the experience of each
facility.
2.43. Quarantine - The
limitation of freedom of movement of persons or animals in a time frame and
manner to prevent contacts that could lead to spread of disease.
2.44. Real time electronic feed - Automated
electronic reporting, usually of laboratory results, such that electronic
laboratory reports are routinely delivered to the Bureau within no more than 24
hours after results are available.
2.45. Reportable Disease or Condition - Any
disease or condition required to be reported by this rule.
2.46. STD - Sexually transmitted
disease.
2.47. Surveillance - The
systematic collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of health
data on an ongoing basis, to gain knowledge of the pattern of disease
occurrence and potential in a community; or to understand the disease patterns
in the community in order to control and prevent disease in the community, or
to evaluate prevention and control efforts.
2.48. Surveillance Region - A grouping of
counties for the purposes of aggregating surveillance data and providing
coverage by a regional epidemiologist. Surveillance regions are usually
self-selected by the counties and are listed at: www.dide.wv.gov.
2.49. Syndromic surveillance - Systematic
collection of data from the point of care, usually based on chief complaint
data, often without a definitive diagnosis, for the purpose of supplementing
other sources of surveillance data.
2.50. Validated Submitter - A laboratory
whose transmission of electronic laboratory data to WVHIN or WVEDSS by HL7
messaging has been validated by the Commissioner. Validation involves
submission of paper and electronic copies of laboratory data until it is
established that electronic reporting is at least as accurate and complete as
paper-based reporting.
2.51.
Veterinarian - A doctor of veterinary medicine.
2.52. Waterborne outbreak - An incident in
which two or more persons experience a similar illness after consumption or use
of water and epidemiologic evidence implicates the water as the source of the
illness.
2.53. WVEDSS - West
Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System - An electronic data system for
reporting and tracking cases of infectious diseases reported from local health
departments and laboratories to the bureau and to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC). WVEDSS is part of the national electronic disease
surveillance system (NEDSS). WVEDSS may use either HL7 or XML data
formats.
2.54. WVHIN - West
Virginia Health Information Network - An electronic system for data exchange
operated by the West Virginia Healthcare Authority for the purpose of
exchanging information between laboratories, health providers and health
facilities. WVHIN is capable of receiving HL7 messaging through a real time
data feed.
2.55. WVSIIS - West
Virginia Statewide Immunization Information System - An electronic registry of
immunization information for children and adults for the purpose of maintaining
an integrated immunization record for all people in the state. WVSIIS data may
bemade available to immunization providers, health care providers, public
health investigators and school personnel to search immunization records for
school entry requirements, with appropriate limits on access. The
administration of adult immunization should also be reported to
WVSIIS.
2.56. Zoonotic disease
-Adisease that is potentially transmitted to humans by direct or indirect
contact with animals or animal products or by exposure to animals or animal
products.
Notes
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