GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1993 SESSION

CHAPTER 336
HOUSE BILL 602

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE TRAUMA SYSTEM ACT OF 1993.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Chapter 131E of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article to read:
"ARTICLE 7A.
"Statewide Trauma System Act of 1993.
"§ 131E-162.  Statewide trauma system. 
The Department shall establish and maintain a program for the development of a statewide trauma system.  The Department shall consolidate all State functions relating to trauma systems, both regulatory and developmental, under the auspices of this program.
The Commission shall adopt rules to carry out the purpose of this Article.  These rules shall be adopted with the advice of the State Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council and shall include the operation of a statewide trauma registry, statewide educational requirements fundamental to the implementation of the trauma system, and guidelines for monitoring and evaluating the system.  The rules adopted by the Commission shall avoid duplication of reporting and minimize the cost to hospitals or other persons reporting under this act.  The Office of Emergency Medical Services shall be the agency responsible for monitoring system development, ensuring compliance with rules, and overseeing system effectiveness.
With respect to collection of data and educational requirements regarding trauma, rules adopted by the Medical Care Commission shall limit the authority of the Department to hospitals and prehospital Emergency Medical Services providers.  Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted so as to grant the Department authority to require private physicians, schools, or universities, except those voluntarily participating in the trauma system, to provide information or data or to conduct educational programs regarding trauma."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 131E-154.2 is amended by adding a new subdivision to read:
"(5)	'Trauma' means acute physical injury to the human body that is judged, by the use of standardized field triage criteria (anatomic, physiologic, or mechanism of injury), to create a significant risk of mortality or major morbidity."
Sec. 3.  This act is effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 13th day of July, 1993.

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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate

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Daniel Blue, Jr.
Speaker of the House of Representatives