Sec. 19a-490h. Emergency room screening of trauma patients for substance abuse. Assistance by Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.

(a) Each hospital licensed by the Department of Public Health as a short-term general hospital, outpatient surgical facility or outpatient clinic shall include in the record of each trauma patient a notation indicating the extent and outcome of screening for alcohol and substance abuse. For purposes of this section, “trauma patient” means a patient of sufficient age to be at risk of alcohol and substance abuse with a traumatic injury, as defined in the most recent edition of the International Classification of Disease, who is admitted to the hospital on an inpatient basis, is transferred to or from an acute care setting, dies or requires emergent trauma team activation.

(b) Each such hospital shall establish protocols for screening patients for alcohol and substance abuse.

(c) The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, after consultation with the Department of Public Health, shall assist each hospital required to conduct alcohol and substance abuse screening pursuant to subsections (a) and (b) of this section with the development and implementation of alcohol and substance abuse screening protocols.

(P.A. 98-201, S. 2, 3; P.A. 99-172, S. 6, 7; P.A. 06-195, S. 27; P.A. 13-26, S. 3.)

History: P.A. 99-172 amended Subsec. (a) to apply to those admitted “on an inpatient basis”, effective June 23, 1999; P.A. 06-195 amended Subsec. (b) by discontinuing submission of hospital alcohol and substance abuse screening protocols to Department of Public Health; P.A. 13-26 amended Subsec. (b) by deleting provision re submission of protocols and report to Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, effective July 1, 2013.