STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2992

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2575

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 2575, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAUMA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to give statewide emergency and trauma system multidisciplinary quality assurance and peer review subcommittees convened and conducted by the Department of Health for the purposes of making system improvements peer review protections similar to those applicable to peer review committees formed by hospitals and health maintenance organizations.

     Written comments in support of the measure were submitted by one private organization.  Comments regarding the measure were submitted by one state agency.  Written comments presented to your Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that statewide trauma multidisciplinary qualify assurance and peer review committees will allow for the collection of reliable data, the ongoing and systematic analysis of trauma outcomes, the provision of feedback to participating trauma centers, hospitals, and practitioners, and the identification of local or statewide opportunities for improvement.  These processes will, in turn, result in higher survival and diminished disability for patients sustaining serious injuries in Hawaii.  In order to facilitate these processes, a measure of confidentiality and protection from discovery must be granted to the committees' proceedings, similar to proceedings for these types of committees within individual hospitals and health maintenance organizations.

     Your Committee notes that interested stakeholders, including the Department of Health and the Office of Information Practices, have been working together to produce a draft that the stakeholders believe would adequately encourage the honest, open, and voluntary participation in these statewide committees.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Authorizing the Department of Health to establish statewide quality assurance committees, as recommended by the stakeholders;

     (2)  Providing that the proceedings of the statewide quality assurance committees established by the Department of Health shall not be subject to part I of chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to open meetings, as recommended by the stakeholders;

     (3)  Providing that the proceedings of the statewide quality assurance committees established by the Department of Health shall be confidential for purposes of chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to records of proceedings, as recommended by the stakeholders; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2575, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2575, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair