Section 246-101-205. Responsibilities and duties of the laboratory director.

(1) Laboratory directors shall:

(a) Notify the local health department where the patient resides, or, in the event that patient residence cannot be determined, the local health department in which the ordering health care provider practices, or the local health department in which the laboratory operates, regarding:

(i) Positive preliminary test results and positive final test results of notifiable conditions specified as notifiable to the local health department in Table Lab-1.

(ii) Positive preliminary test results and positive final test results of conditions specified as notifiable by the local health officer within that health officer's jurisdiction.

(b) Notify the department of conditions designated as notifiable to the local health department when:

(i) A local health department is closed or representatives of the local health department are unavailable at the time a positive preliminary test result or positive final test result of an immediately notifiable condition occurs; or

(ii) A local health department is closed or representatives of the local health department are unavailable at the time an outbreak or suspected outbreak of communicable disease occurs.

(c) Notify the department of positive preliminary test results or positive final test results for conditions designated notifiable to the department in Table Lab-1.

(d) Notify the department of nonelevated blood lead levels on a monthly basis.

(e) Submit specimens for conditions noted in Table Lab-1 to the Washington state public health laboratories or other laboratory designated by the state health officer for diagnosis, confirmation, storage, or further testing.

(f) Ensure that positive preliminary test results and positive final test results for notifiable conditions of specimens referred to other laboratories for testing are correctly notified to the correct local health department or the department. This requirement can be satisfied by:

(i) Arranging for the referral laboratory to notify either the local health department, the department, or both; or

(ii) Forwarding the notification of the test result from the referral laboratory to the local health department, the department, or both.

(g) Cooperate with public health authorities during investigation of:

(i) Circumstances of a case or suspected case of a notifiable condition or other communicable disease; and

(ii) An outbreak or suspected outbreak of disease.

(2) Laboratory directors may designate responsibility for working and cooperating with public health authorities to certain employees as long as designated employees are:

(a) Readily available; and

(b) Able to provide requested information in a timely manner.

(3) By July 1, 2011, when referring a specimen to another laboratory for a test for a notifiable condition, laboratory directors shall provide the laboratory with the following information for each test referral:

(a) Patient name;

(b) Full address of patient, or patient zip code at a minimum, when available in laboratory data base;

(c) Date of birth or age of patient, when available in laboratory data base;

(d) Sex of patient, when available in laboratory data base;

(e) Name of the principal health care provider;

(f) Telephone number of the principal health care provider;

(g) Address of the principal health care provider, when available;

(h) Type of test requested;

(i) Type of specimen; and

(j) Date of specimen collection.

(4) By January 1, 2013, laboratory data bases must have the ability to receive, store, and retrieve all of the data elements specified in subsection (3)(a) through (j) of this section.

[Statutory Authority: RCW 43.20.050. WSR 11-02-065, § 246-101-205, filed 1/4/11, effective 2/4/11; WSR 00-23-120, § 246-101-205, filed 11/22/00, effective 12/23/00.]

RCW 43.20.050. WSR 11-02-065, § 246-101-205, filed 1/4/11, effective 2/4/11; WSR 00-23-120, § 246-101-205, filed 11/22/00, effective 12/23/00.