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Timestamp: 2019-01-16 16:33:12
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Rhode Island Reporting Statute
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The information on this page was last updated by Horty, Springer & Mattern on June 7, 2018.
R.I. Gen. Laws §5-29-18 Reports relating to professional conduct and capacity – Regulations – Confidentiality – Immunity [Podiatrist].
(a) The board, with the approval of the director, may adopt regulations requiring any person, including, but not limited to, corporations, health care facilities, health maintenance organizations, organizations and federal, state, or local governmental agencies, or peer review boards to report to the board any conviction, determination, or finding that a licensed podiatrist has committed unprofessional conduct, or to report information which indicates that a podiatrist may not be able to practice podiatry with reasonable skill and safety to patients as the result of any mental or physical condition. The regulations shall include the reporting requirements set forth in subdivisions (1), (2) and (3) of subsection (b).
(1) Every insurer providing professional liability insurance to the podiatrist licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall send a complete report to the board as to any formal notice of any claim, settlement of any claim or cause of actions, or final judgment rendered in any cause of action for damages for death or personal injury caused by the podiatrist’s negligence, error, or omission in practice or his or her rendering of unauthorized professional services. The report shall be sent within thirty (30) days after service of the complaint or notice, settlement, judgment, or arbitration award on the parties. All of those reports shall set forth an in-depth factual summary of the claim in question.
(2) All hospital and licensed health care facilities including, but not limited to, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations and the director of health must report to the board within thirty (30) days of the action, any action, disciplinary or otherwise, taken for any reason, which limits, suspends or revokes a podiatrist’s privilege to practice or requires supervision of a podiatrist either through formal action by the institution or faculty or through any voluntary agreement with the podiatrist.
(3) Within ten (10) days after a judgment by a court of this state that a podiatrist licensed under the provisions of this chapter has been convicted of a crime or is civilly liable for any death or personal injury caused by his or her negligence, error, or omission in his or her practice or his or her rendering of unauthorized professional services, the clerk of the court which rendered such judgment shall report the judgment to the board.
(d) The contents of any report file shall be confidential and exempt from public disclosure, except that it may be reviewed:
(1) By the licensee involved or his or her counsel or authorized representative who may submit any additional exculpatory or explanatory statements or other information, which statement or other information shall be included in the file, or
(2) By the director, a representative of the board or an investigator for the board, who has been assigned to review the activities of a licensed podiatrist.
(e) Upon determination that a report is without merit, the board’s records may be purged of information relating to the report.
(f) If any person refuses to furnish a required report, the board may petition the superior court of any county in which that person resides or is found, and the superior court shall issue to that person an order to furnish the required report. Any failure to comply with that order constitutes civil contempt.
(g) Every individual, podiatry association, podiatry society, hospital, health care facility, health maintenance organization, peer review board, health insurance carrier or agent, professional standards review organization, and the agency of the federal, state or local government is immune from civil liability, whether direct or derivative, for providing information to the board in good faith pursuant to this statute or the regulations outlined in subsection (a) or requirements of subsection (b).
(h) Nondisclosure agreements are prohibited insofar as they forbid parties from making reports regarding competency and/or unprofessional conduct to the board of examiners in podiatry.
§5-31.1-20 Reports relating to professional conduct and capacity – Regulations – Confidentiality – Immunity [Dentists].
(1) Every insurer providing professional liability insurance to a dentist, dental hygienist, or DAANCE-certified maxillofacial surgery assistant licensed under the provisions of this chapter must send a complete report to the board as to any formal notice of any claim, settlement of any claim or cause of actions, or final judgment rendered in any cause of action for damages for death or personal injury caused by a dentist’s, dental hygienist’s, or DAANCE-certified maxillofacial surgery assistant’s negligence, error, or omission in practice or his or her rendering of unauthorized professional services. This report shall be sent within thirty (30) days after service of the complaint or notice, settlement, judgment, or arbitration award on the parties. All of those reports shall present an in-depth, factual summary of the claim in question.
(2) All hospital and licensed health care facilities including, but not limited to, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations and the director of the department of health must report to the board, within thirty (30) days of the action, any action, disciplinary or otherwise, taken for any reason, that limits, suspends, or revokes a dentist’s or dental hygienist’s privilege to practice or requires supervision of a dentist, either through formal action by the institution or faculty or through any voluntary agreement with the dentist.
(f) If any person refuses to furnish a required report, the board may petition the superior court of any county in which that person resides or is found, and the superior court shall issue to the court’s person an order to furnish the required report. Any failure to comply with that order constitutes civil contempt.
§5-37-9 Reports relating to professional conduct and capacity – Regulations – Confidentiality – Immunity.
In addition to the requirements of § 42-14-2.1 [Reporting by certain insurers – Settlements]:
(1) The board with the approval of the director may adopt regulations requiring any person, including, but not limited to, corporations, health care facilities, health maintenance organizations, organizations, federal, state, or local governmental agencies, and peer review boards to report to the board any conviction, determination, or finding that a licensed physician has committed unprofessional conduct as defined by §5-37-5.1 as now or hereafter amended, or to report information which indicates that a licensed physician may not be able to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients as the result of any mental or physical condition. The regulations shall include the reporting requirements of subdivision (2)(i), (ii) and (iii).
(2) The following reports in writing shall be filed with the board:
(i) Every insurer providing professional liability insurance to a physician licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall send a complete report to the board presenting notice of any civil action filed, settlement of any claim or cause of action, or final judgment rendered in any cause of action for damages for death or personal injury caused by the physician’s negligence, error, or omission in practice, or his or her rendering of unauthorized professional services. This report shall be sent within thirty (30) days after notice of any civil action filed, settlement, judgment, or arbitration award. All of these reports shall present an in-depth factual summary of the claim in question. Commencing July 1, 1997, all reports of final judgments or settlements shall specify the class or category of risk for which the physician is insured identified by Insurance Services Organization (“ISO”) Code and, in the case of joint and several liability, shall specify the portion of the total award paid by or on behalf of the physician.
(ii) All hospital and licensed health care facilities including, but not limited to, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations and the director of health must report to the board within thirty (30) days of this action, any action, disciplinary or otherwise, taken for any reason, which limits, suspends or revokes a physician’s privilege to practice or requires supervision of a physician, either through formal action by the institution or facility or through any voluntary agreement with the physician.
(3) The board shall publicly report any change of privilege, of which it is aware, to the board of trustees or other appropriate body of all licensed hospitals, licensed health care facilities, health maintenance organizations, and other parties as the board deems appropriate within thirty (30) days; provided, that, except as required by § 5-37-9.2 [Physician Profiles – Public access to data] notwithstanding the provisions of this subdivision, the board may, in instances where the change of privilege is not related to quality of patient care, elect not to disseminate the report of change in privilege. This election may be made in executive session and no decision not to disseminate is made except by majority vote of the members present at the meeting and only upon a finding of fact by the board after inquiry that the change of privilege was not related to quality of patient care.
(4) Except as provided in § 5-37-9.2 [Physician Profiles – Public access to data], the contents of any report file are confidential and exempt from public disclosure, except that it may be reviewed:
(5) Upon determination that a report is without merit, the board’s records may be purged of information relating to the report.
(7) Every individual, medical association, medical society, hospital, health care facility, health maintenance organization, peer review board, medical service bureau, health insurance carrier or agent, professional standards review organization, and agency of the federal, state, or local government shall be immune from civil liability, whether direct or derivative, for providing information in good faith to the board pursuant to this section or the regulations outlined in subdivision (1) or requirements of subdivision (2).
(9) The board with the approval of director promulgates rules and regulations prescribing standards for hospital or health maintenance organization supervision of physicians by peer review committees. These regulations require that each hospital or health maintenance organization report annually to the board the activities, findings, studies, and determinations of its peer review committees.
§5-37-9.1 Requirements relating to professional conduct.
The board shall receive and maintain a confidential file which will be available to the board to precipitate or aid in their investigations. The information is also available to licensed health care facilities including health maintenance organizations in connection with the granting of staff privileges and to the individual physicians themselves and is available for inclusion in physician profiles pursuant to § 5-37-9.2 [Physician Profiles – Public access to data]. The file contains the following physician information:
(1) “Adverse event” means injury to a patient resulting from a medical intervention, and not to the underlying condition of the patient.
(2) “Checklist of care” means predetermined steps to be followed by a team of health-care providers before, during, or after a given procedure to decrease the possibility of adverse effects and other patient harm by articulating standards of care.
(d) Any hospital or freestanding, emergency-care facility filing a report with the attorney general’s office concerning abuse, neglect, and mistreatment of patients, as defined in chapter 17.8 of this title, shall forward a copy of the report to the department of health. In addition, a copy of all hospital notifications and reports made in compliance with the federal Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990, 21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq., shall be forwarded to the department of health within the time specified in the federal law.
(e) Any reportable incident in a hospital that results in patient injury, as defined in subsection (f), shall be reported to the department of health with1 seventy-two (72) hours or when the hospital has reasonable cause to believe that an incident, as defined in subsection (f), has occurred. The department of health shall promulgate rules and regulations to include the process whereby health-care professionals with knowledge of an incident shall report it to the hospital; requirements for the hospital to conduct a root-cause analysis of the incident or other appropriate process for incident investigation and to develop and file a performance-improvement plan; and additional incidents to be reported that are in addition to those listed in subsection (f). In its reports, no personal identifiers shall be included. The hospital shall require the appropriate committee within the hospital to carry out a peer-review process to determine whether the incident was within the normal range of outcomes, given the patient’s condition. The hospital shall notify the department of the outcome of the internal review, and if the findings determine that the incident was within the normal range of patient outcomes, no further action is required. If the findings conclude that the incident was not within the normal range of patient outcomes, the hospital shall conduct a root-cause analysis or other appropriate process for incident investigation to identify causal factors that may have lead to the incident and develop a performance-improvement plan to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. The hospital shall also provide to the department of health the following information:
(11) Subjecting a patient to a procedure other than that ordered or intended by the patient’s attending physician;
(k) The director shall review the list of incidents to be reported in subsection (f) at least biennially to ascertain whether any additions, deletions, or modifications to the list are necessary. In conducting the review, the director shall take into account those adverse events identified on the National Quality Forum’s List of Serious Reportable Events. In the event the director determines that incidents should be added, deleted, or modified, the director shall make such recommendations for changes to the legislature.