An emergency regulation clarifying the opioid overdose reporting procedure required by a new omnibus substances abuse prevention law will take effect Friday.

The regulation, signed on Wednesday by Gov. Brian Sandoval, defines what counts as an overdose and requires health-care providers to report overdoses and suspected overdoses to the state’s chief medical officer within seven days after patient discharge. The emergency regulation will remain in effect for 120 days while the permanent regulation works its way through the approval process over the next several months.

In their reports to the state, providers will be required to include specific patient information, such as occupation, Social Security number, sex, gender, race and date of birth, the date of the overdose or suspected overdose, any lab results, disposition, previous known overdoses, patient pregnancy status and the related international classification of disease code.

The regulation also requires medical facilities to establish administrative procedures to ensure that the chief medical officer is notified of the overdoses or suspected overdoses. State officials hope that hospitals will take on the responsibility of reporting overdoses for providers at their facilities.

A statewide epidemiological working group discussed today the emergency regulation and possible changes to be incorporated into the permanent regulation, including changing extending the number of days for reporting overdoses from seven to 10 days and removing the wording in one section requiring providers who even “know of” a patient who has suffered or is suspected of having suffered a drug overdose to report to the state.

The permanent regulation will be up for public comment sometime in mid-February and will likely come before the Board of Health in April. After that, the Legislative Commission, which conducts legislative business between legislative sessions, would have to approve the regulation at its next meeting.

In the meantime, the state plans to publish a set of frequently asked questions to address the emergency regulations, such as clarifying that dentists are not required to report overdoses or suspected overdoses and that doctors are not responsible for reporting overdoses if they find out a patient overdosed six months ago during a course of a visit. Health-care providers are only required to report if the overdose or suspected overdose was the primary reason for the clinical visit at the time.