New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 8. NJ Department of Health
Chapter 58. Reportable Occupational and Environmental Diseases,
Injuries, and Poisonings
Effective Date: June 12, 2023.
Expiration date: June 12, 2030
SUBCHAPTER 1. Occupational and Environmental Diseases, Injuries, and Poisonings
(a) The purpose of this chapter is to establish standards by which hospitals and health care providers are to report occupational and environmental diseases, injuries, and poisonings to the Department pursuant to N.J.S.A. 26:1A-7.
(b) This chapter applies to hospitals and health care providers.
The following words and terms, as used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Administrator" means the chief administrator or other person having control or supervision over a hospital.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department.
"Condition category" means the name by which the Appendix to the eWoRLD entitled "International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Codes," available at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/eworld/Appendix/ICDCodes, identifies a group of diseases that share a common ICD-10-CM code.
"Confirmed, work-related" means, as used to describe asthma, a diagnosis of asthma and a patient-reported work-related temporal pattern.
"Department" means the New Jersey Department of Health.
"Discharge summary" means a discharge summary pursuant to N.J.S.A. 26:8-5 and 26:2H-12.9b through 26:2H-12.9d, known as Leonard Cohen's law, and N.J.A.C. 8:43G-15.2.
"eWoRLD" means the NIOSH 2016 Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance System, which is incorporated herein by reference, as amended and supplemented, of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Respiratory Health Division, Surveillance Branch, available at http://wwwn.cdc.gov/eworld.
"Health care provider" means a person whom the State of New Jersey licenses pursuant to Title 45 of the New Jersey Revised Statutes, and acting within the respective licensed scope of practice, as a physician, a physician assistant, or an advanced practice nurse.
"Hospital" means a general and/or special hospital that the Department licenses pursuant to N.J.S.A. 26:2H-1 et seq.
"Hospital discharge data" means a set of computerized records that hospitals create at the time of patient discharge that contains information that hospitals retrieve from patients' medical charts in accordance with N.J.S.A. 26:2H-1 et seq., and N.J.A.C. 8:31B.
"ICD-10-CM" means the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (Fiscal Year 2017 release), incorporated here by reference, as amended and supplemented, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the National Center for Health Statistics of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd10cm.htm.
"Minor" means a person who has not attained majority status pursuant to N.J.S.A. 9:17B-1 et seq., that is, is under the age of 18.
"Occupational and Environmental Disease, Injury, or Poisoning Report by Health Care Provider" means form OCC-31, which appears at the chapter Appendix with instructions for completion, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
"Occupational Health Surveillance Unit" means a unit within the Department for which the contact information is Occupational Health Surveillance Unit, Environmental and Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Consumer, Environmental and Occupational Health Service, Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 369, Trenton, NJ 08625-0369.
"Other occupational disease" means a disease that results from work or occupational activity and that a health care provider believes to be a threat to worker health.
"Suspected, work-related" means, as used to describe asthma, the presentation of symptoms and a patient-reported work-related temporal pattern.
The Department may require a hospital and/or a health care provider to provide additional information after receipt of a report pursuant to this chapter if information is missing or if the Department requires other information as necessary to conduct surveillance, perform research, and/or undertake other public health activities.
Go to http://healthapps.state.nj.us/forms/ and type “occ-31” in search box.
