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IN SB0278
Bill
AI Summary
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Local health departments, licensed hospitals, or state-approved entities may establish local fetal-infant mortality review teams to review stillbirths (after 20 weeks gestation) and deaths of children under 1 year of age to improve community resources and reduce such deaths.
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Review teams must be multidisciplinary and culturally diverse, including representatives from obstetrics, pediatrics, mental health, social work, law enforcement, and other fields; teams must meet at least quarterly and identify trends, minority mortality rate disparities, and prevention strategies.
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Teams may access medical records, law enforcement records, coroner reports, mental health records, and other relevant documents; health care providers and facilities must provide good-faith access to records and are immune from civil, administrative, disciplinary, or criminal liability for disclosure.
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The state department of health must employ a statewide fetal-infant mortality review coordinator to establish teams statewide, develop protocols and data collection tools, coordinate training, and serve as liaison to the statewide child fatality review committee.
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Review teams must submit annual reports to the state department by July 1 summarizing data collected, recommended actions to reduce deaths, and proposed solutions for system inadequacies; all identifying information and review data remains confidential and exempt from subpoena or discovery.
Legislative Description
Local fetal-infant mortality review teams. Allows certain persons to establish a local fetal-infant mortality review team (review team) to review fetal deaths and infant deaths to gather information to improve community resources and systems of care. Sets forth duties of a review team. Specifies records related to a death that may be reviewed by the review team, access to the records, and confidentiality of the records. Requires the employment of a statewide fetal-infant mortality review coordinator and specifies duties of the coordinator. Requires a review team to submit a report before July 1 of each year to the state department of health concerning the reviews conducted by the review team. Provides certain civil and criminal immunity for review team members and certain individuals who attend meetings at the invitation of the chairperson of a review team.
Last Action
Public Law 31
4/18/2019