As used in this article:

(1) "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(2) "Designation" means a formal determination by the department that a hospital or health care facility is capable of providing a specified level of trauma care services.

(3) "Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council" means the emergency medical services council created in Section 44-61-30(c).

(4) "Participating providers" means those providers that have been approved by the department for participation in the trauma system and include, but are not limited to, designated trauma centers, designated rehabilitation facilities, and designated fee for service physicians who provide trauma care within a designated facility.

(5) "State Trauma Advisory Council" means the state advisory council created in this article.

(6) "Trauma" means a major injury or wound to a living person caused by the application of an external force or by violence and the requiring immediate medical or surgical intervention to prevent death or permanent disability. For the purposes of this article, the definition of "trauma" must be determined by current national medical standards including, but not limited to, trauma severity scales.

(7) "Trauma care facility" or "trauma center" means a hospital that has been designated by the department according to the rules and regulations set forth by the department to provide trauma care services at a particular level.

(8) "Trauma registry" means a statewide database of information collected by the department including, but not limited to, the incidence, severity, and causes of trauma and the care and outcomes for certain types of injuries.

(9) "Trauma system" means an organized statewide and regional system of care for the trauma patient, including the department, emergency medical service providers, hospitals, in-patient rehabilitation providers, and other providers who have agreed to participate in and coordinate with and who have been accepted by the department in an organized statewide system.

(10) "Trauma System Fund" means the separate fund established pursuant to this article for the department to create and administer the State Trauma System.

(11) "Verification" means the department's inspection of a participating facility in order to determine whether the facility is capable of providing a designated level of trauma care.

HISTORY: 2004 Act No. 232, Section 1, eff May 11, 2004.