Collecting and maintaining information; annual report.

(A) A suicide fatality review committee shall establish a system for collecting and maintaining information necessary for the review of suicide deaths in the county or region. In an effort to ensure confidentiality, each committee shall do all of the following: (1) Maintain all records in a secure location; (2) Develop security measures to prevent unauthorized access to records containing information that could reasonably identify any person; (3) Develop a system for storing, processing, indexing, retrieving, and destroying information obtained in the course of reviewing a death resulting from suicide. (B) For each death resulting from suicide reviewed by a committee, the committee shall collect all of the following: (1) Demographic information of the deceased, including age, sex, race, and ethnicity; (2) The year in which the death occurred; (3) The geographic location of the death; (4) The cause of death; (5) Any factors contributing to the death; (6) Any other information the committee considers relevant. (C) By the first day of April of each year, the person convening a suicide fatality review committee shall prepare and submit to the Ohio department of health a report that summarizes the following information about suicide deaths reviewed by the committee in the previous calendar year: (1) The cause of death; (2) Factors contributing to death; (3) Age; (4) Sex; (5) Race; (6) The geographic location of death; (7) The year of death. The report shall specify the number of suicide deaths that were not reviewed during the previous calendar year. The report may include recommendations for actions that might prevent other suicide deaths, as well as any other information the review committee determines should be included. (D) Reports prepared under division (C) of this section are public records under section 149.43 of the Revised Code. Last updated October 19, 2021 at 5:18 PM