STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2262

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2728

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2728 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAUMA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish statewide emergency and trauma system multiagency and multidisciplinary quality assurance and peer review committees convened by the Department of Health for the purposes of improving patient care.

     This measure further provides that these committees are exempt from chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that individuals on these committees may not be questioned in civil or criminal proceedings regarding information learned as a result of involvement with those committees, and information held by the Department of Health as a result of the work of these committees is not subject to chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, American Medical Response, Kona Community Hospital, The Queen's Medical Center, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, and three individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Association for Justice.  The Office of Information Practices submitted testimony with comments on this measure.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that statewide emergency and trauma system multiagency and multidisciplinary quality assurance and peer review committees convened by the Department of Health will improve patient care.  Your Committee further finds that to ensure patient privacy and to encourage participation on these committees, members of subcommittees established to make recommendations to the Department for system improvements should be provided protection from being questioned in civil or criminal proceedings about information learned on these subcommittees.  For the same purpose, the Department of Health's records from these committees shall be exempt from chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, or subpoena, discovery, or introduction into evidence in criminal or civil proceedings.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that not all multidisciplinary and multiagency quality assurance and peer review committees convened by the Department of Health are exempt from chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and questioning in civil and criminal proceedings, but that only those subcommittees of quality assurance and peer review committees that examine patient care records and system performance are exempted;

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050 to encourage further discussion on this matter; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes to insure clarity and accuracy in the language of this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2728, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2728, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair