INFORMATION, GUIDELINES, AND PROTOCOLS RELATED TO CERTAIN PATIENT TRANSFERS AND RELATED SERVICES.

(a) This section applies only to a trauma service area regional advisory council serving a geographic area that includes:

(1) at least one county located on the international border of this state; and

(2) at least one county adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico.

(b) For each trauma service area regional advisory council to which this section applies, the executive commissioner by rule shall:

(1) require the council to create an advisory committee composed of equally represented designated trauma hospital system members located within the geographic boundaries of the council or require the council to direct an existing advisory committee of the council established for a purpose similar to that described by this subsection to:

(A) develop guidelines for patient transfers; and

(B) periodically review patient transfers to ensure compliance with applicable guidelines;

(2) for the purpose of ensuring that patients located in the council's geographic boundaries receive health care at the health care facility closest to and most appropriate for the patients, require the council to develop regional protocols and processes to assist the council in managing the dispatch, triage, transport, and transfer of patients; and

(3) require each hospital and emergency medical services provider operating within the council's geographic boundaries to collect and report to the council data on patients transferred outside the council's geographic boundaries.