§ 26-2-23. Records required to be kept by health care institutions -- Information filed with local registrar and department.

(1)

(a) All administrators or other persons in charge of hospitals, nursing homes, or other institutions, public or private, to which persons resort for treatment of diseases, confinements, or are committed by law, shall record all the personal and statistical information about patients of their institutions as required in certificates prescribed by this chapter.

(b) The information described in Subsection (1)(a) shall:

(i) be recorded for collection at the time of admission of a patient;

(ii) be obtained from the patient, if possible; and

(iii) if the information cannot be obtained from the patient, the information shall be secured in as complete a manner as possible from other persons acquainted with the facts.

(2)

(a) When a dead body or dead fetus is released or disposed of by an institution, the person in charge of the institution shall keep a record showing:

(i) the name of the deceased;

(ii) the date of death of the deceased;

(iii) the name and address of the person to whom the dead body or dead fetus is released; and

(iv) the date that the dead body or dead fetus is removed from the institution.

(b) If final disposal is by the institution, the date, place, manner of disposition, and the name of the person authorizing disposition shall be recorded by the person in charge of the institution.

(3) Not later than the tenth day of each month, the administrator of each institution shall cause to be sent to the local registrar and the department a list of all births, deaths, fetal deaths, and induced abortions occurring in the institution during the preceding month. The list shall be in the form prescribed by the state registrar.

(4) A person or institution who, in good faith, releases a dead body or dead fetus, under this section, to a funeral service director or a dispositioner is immune from civil liability connected, directly or indirectly, with release of the dead body or dead fetus.

Amended by Chapter 68, 2009 General Session