HIV and AIDS Education and Information

HotelCo

HotelCo

Forum Deputy Chief
Messages
2,198
Reaction score
4
Points
38
Ryan White CARE Act

A search for "Ryan White" didn't show any results for this.

http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/articles/jems/3303/ryan_white_notification_law_repealed.html

Emergency responders are protected by a number of laws and standards of care regarding occupational exposure to communicable diseases. Since 1994, the emergency-response provisions of the Ryan White CARE Act (Public Law 101-381) provided such protection. However, in a recent action that went unnoticed in the emergency-response community, Congress removed these provisions in the latest reauthorization of this law (Public Law 109-415). This development is bad news for emergency responders—and must be addressed by all of us immediately.
Click to expand...

I personally don't understand the rationale for removing this.

Edit: I do realize the article is old, but since I didn't see any thread dealing with it. I thought it would be good to post.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was a paramedic student when this happened, and let me tell you, we were PISSED! Our local EMS council did send a letter to our reps/gov stating why it was a bad idea to take those parts out and why they needed to be left. I honestly don't know if they got any sort of response.

Situations like this really illustrate why we need our own governing agency on the national level that can be an advocate for the profession and try and stop politicians from doing stuff like this.
 
There was a thread on this, somewhere. I believe they extended it, until it could be discussed further. Ask Vent, she knew more about it.
 
The part quoted is only one very, very small part of the Ryan White Care Act.

This is a multi BILLION dollar program to provide a variety of services. The intent of this program was to help those with HIV/AIDS since that is the story behind Ryan White.

Many states, including Florida, saw the probability of this Act being redone and made their own state policies to protect health care workers.

Back when this Act was developed in 1990, HIV/AIDS was still something of a mystery to some in healthcare. As education increased, we realized you couldn't get HIV from just being in the same building with the person. Thus, some of the data needed to be updated. We also now have many OSHA guidelines to offer protection and education to EMS workers.

Check your state statutes. As well, you can check your local hospitals and see what provisions their infectious disease programs have made for notification of EMS personnel. Of course, it may then be up to your company to have a policy in place to see the necessary steps are taken from there or that the OSHA guidelines ar followed to prevent exposure. That is often the weakest link.

There have obviously be a few revisions over the past two decades. This is one of them.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/ryanwhite.html

The financial data:
http://www.hrsa.gov/about/budgetjustification08/RyanWhiteHIV.htm
 
The Ryan White Act had in the past helped iwith funding but since it has been revised and there are Federal cutbacks, I don't know how much is being allocated for various services.

Facilities and housing organizations that might be of help with info.

http://www.maitrisf.org/ (Excellent!)

http://www.browardhouse.org/services.html

http://www.projecttransitions.org/

Various Organizations
http://www.thebody.com/index/hotlines/other.html

http://www.aidstruth.org/hiv-aids-organizations.php

http://www.afanlv.org/
 
This thread was initially in reference to a question about assisted living facilities. I hope it will also provide some discussion about the various types of living wills, DNRs and Hospice arrangements.

As well, some may have questions about their own needle stick policies and this would be a great time review your own P&Ps. I know on another thread a Paramedic ran into some resistance with his company and had poorly defined policies on it.

There is an increase now in newly diagnosed HIV cases for the ages of 18 - 24 largely due to the lack of education as it has been slacking off in the past few years. Also, some are presenting with full blown AIDS since many do not recognize the signs and symptoms or have bothered to be tested.
 
Threads merged.
 
For those of you in Florida who are still losing sleep over the Ryan White ACT and its impact on EMS:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes...EC1025.HTM&Title=->2008->Ch0395->Section+1025



The 2008 Florida Statutes
600x3_gradient.gif


Title XXIX
PUBLIC HEALTH Chapter 395
HOSPITAL LICENSING AND REGULATION
[SIZE=-1]395.1025 Infectious diseases; notification.--Notwithstanding the provisions in s. 381.004, if, while treating or transporting an ill or injured patient to a licensed facility, an emergency medical technician, paramedic, or other person comes into direct contact with the patient who is subsequently diagnosed as having an infectious disease, it shall be the duty of the licensed facility receiving the patient to notify the emergency medical technician, paramedic, or his or her emergency medical transportation service employer, or other person of the individual's exposure to the patient within 48 hours, or sooner, of confirmation of the patient's diagnosis and to advise him or her of the appropriate treatment, if any. Notification made pursuant to this section shall be done in a manner which will protect the confidentiality of such patient information and shall not include any patient's name. [/SIZE]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top