A. The Legislature hereby directs the State Department of Health to develop a state suicide data collection system to provide reliable data about attempted suicides in this state. In developing the system the Department shall:

1. Include information on the incidence of suicide attempts;

2. Include demographic information on persons who attempt suicide; and

3. Explore prevention strategies for reducing the number of attempted suicides and suicides.

B. As used in this section:

1. "Attempted suicide" means a voluntary and intentional injury to one’s own body with the goal of ending one’s own life;

2. “E-codes” are external cause of injury codes contained in the International Classification of Diseases – 9th Revision; and

3. "Suicide" means a voluntary and intentional taking of one’s own life;

C. The State Board of Health shall, if funds are available, establish a system for collecting information concerning attempted suicides among persons who were hospitalized or who were treated and released. In establishing the system, the Board may require hospitals, and other related institutions, as defined in Section 1-701 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes, to include E-codes on all patient discharge data or, if necessary, to complete and submit a Report of Suicide Attempt form to be made available by the State Department of Health.

D. The system shall be implemented statewide.

E. Individual forms, computer tapes or other forms of data collected pursuant to this section shall be confidential and shall not be public records as defined in the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

F. The confidentiality of identifying information is to be protected, and the pertinent statutes and rules of the State of Oklahoma and the regulations of the federal government relative to confidentiality shall apply.

G. Identifying information shall not be disclosed and shall not be used for any purpose except statistical reporting and data analysis.

H. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the publishing of statistical compilations relating to suicide attempts which do not in any way identify individual cases or individual sources of information.

I. 1. A violation of the provisions of this section by an employee of the Department shall be grounds for termination of employment.

2. Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) or imprisonment in the county jail for up to one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

J. The State Board of Health is authorized to promulgate rules to carry out the provisions of this section.

Added by Laws 2001, c. 168, § 6, emerg. eff. May 2, 2001.