Infectious Disease Reporting
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- Persons Required to Report
- Submitting Clinical Materials
- Reporting Rule
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Contact Info
Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Division
651-201-5414
Persons Required to Report Disease:
Infectious Disease Reporting
Who is required to report
- Health care practitioners (health care facilities, medical laboratories, and in certain circumstances veterinarians and veterinary medical laboratories) are required to report disease to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) under Minnesota state law.
- Unless previously reported, every licensed health care provider who provides care to any patient who has, is suspected of having, or has died from a reportable disease is required to report.
- Any person in charge of any institution, school, child care facility, or camp is also required to report disease to MDH.
More information about persons required to report disease:
Submitter:
- A submitter is any health care provider or laboratory that collects and submits clinical materials to the Minnesota Department of Health under this rule.
Health care practitioners:
- "Health care practitioner" means a Minnesota-licensed doctor of medicine, a Minnesota-licensed physician assistant acting within the scope of authorized practice, or a Minnesota-licensed advanced practice registered nurse or a certified nurse midwife who has the primary responsibility for the care and treatment of a person.
Health care facilities:
- Hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics, or other health care facilities shall designate:
- all individual health care practitioners report
- or an infection control practitioner (or other person as responsible) to report
"Infection control practitioner" means a person designated by a hospital, nursing home, medical clinic, or other health care facility as having responsibility for prevention, detection, reporting, and control
of infections within the facility.
Medical laboratories:
- "Medical laboratory" means a facility that receives, forwards, or analyzes specimens of original material from the human body, or referred cultures of specimens obtained from the human body, and reports the results to a health care practitioner who uses the data for purposes of patient care.
- Within one working day of completion, all medical laboratories should provide:
- the results of microbiologic cultures, examinations, immunologic assays for the presence of antigens and antibodies, and any other laboratory tests, which are indicative of the presence of any reportable disease
- all clinical materials specified upon a positive laboratory finding for the disease or condition, or upon request in relation to a case or suspected case
- the results of all CD4+ lymphocyte counts and percents and the results of all HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C viral detection laboratory tests
Veterinarians and veterinary medical laboratories:
- “Veterinarian” means any person who is licensed by the Minnesota Board of Veterinary Medicine to practice veterinary medicine.
Certain reports of clinical diagnosis of disease in animals, reports of laboratory tests on animals, and clinical materials from animals, when:- the disease is common to both animals and humans
- the disease may be transmitted directly or indirectly to and between humans and animals
- the persons who are afflicted with the disease are likely to suffer complications, disability, or death as a result
- investigation based upon veterinarian and veterinary medical laboratory reports will assist in the prevention and control of disease among humans
Comprehensive reporting:
- An institution, facility, or clinic, staffed by health care practitioners and having medical laboratories that are required to report, may upon written notification to the commissioner designate a single person or group of persons to report.
Out of state:
- Persons and entities that are required to report and that send clinical materials out of state for testing are responsible for ensuring that results are reported and clinical materials are submitted as required.
- If a medical laboratory forwards clinical materials out of state for testing, the originating medical laboratory retains the duty to comply, either by:
- reporting the results and submitting the clinical materials
- or ensuring that the results are reported and materials submitted
- Cases, suspected cases, carriers, and deaths due to disease acquired outside the state: A health care practitioner shall report cases, suspected cases, carriers, and deaths due to any infectious disease that a physician health care practitioner determines has been acquired outside the state and that is considered: rare or unusual in Minnesota; or a public health problem in the geographic area of presumed acquisition.
Others:
- Unless previously reported, it is the duty of every other licensed health care provider who provides care to any patient who has or suspected case, as much of the information known.
- It is the duty of any person in charge of any institution, school, child care facility or camp, or any other person having knowledge of any disease which may threaten the public health, to report immediately the name and address of any person or deceased person suspected of having the disease.
Last Updated: 10/20/2022