§ 31-11-134. Data Reporting System

1. The office shall establish a data reporting system which may be composed of one or more data bases for the reporting of data on all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients and all heart attack patients. The data reporting system may be composed of data bases established or designated by the office, including, but not limited to, data bases newly created and managed by or on behalf of the office, existing state data bases modified to include such additional reporting, existing regional or national data bases, or any combination thereof.
2. Each emergency cardiac care center shall:
   1. Report to the data base specified by the office data on all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients and data on all heart attack patients in accordance with time frame requirements established by the office; and
   2. Have a written system included in the protocols for the hospital for timely submission of all such data required to be submitted pursuant to this Code section and office guidelines.
3. The office shall, on an ongoing basis, analyze state-wide data collected pursuant to this Code section for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients and heart attack patients, with the goal of improving survival rates over the initial three years of the program, and shall improve any processes or adjust any protocols as necessary to implement best practices to improve the cardiac care of patients through emergency cardiac care centers in this state.
4. The office shall collect the data reported pursuant to this Code section and shall post such information in the form of an annual report card on the office’s website and present such report to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The results of this report card may be used by the office to conduct training with the identified hospitals regarding best practices in the treatment of emergency cardiac care patients.
5. In no way shall this article be construed to require disclosure of any confidential information or other data in violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, P.L. 104-191.

History. Code 1981, § 31-11-134 , enacted by Ga. L. 2017, p. 302, § 1/SB 102.