BILL REQ. #: H-4001.3
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2006 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 01/24/06.
AN ACT Relating to health care providers; adding a new section to chapter 43.70 RCW; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 43.70 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) The department, in collaboration with the work force training
and education coordinating board, shall distribute survey questions for
the purpose of gathering data related to work force supply and
demographics to all health care providers who hold a license to
practice a health profession. The department shall adopt a schedule
for distributing surveys by profession so that each profession is
surveyed every two years. In developing the survey, the department
shall seek advice from researchers that are likely to use the survey
data.
(2)(a) At a minimum, the survey shall include questions related to
understanding the following characteristics of individuals in the
health care work force:
(i) Specialty;
(ii) Birthdate and gender;
(iii) Race and ethnicity;
(iv) Hours in practice per week;
(v) Practice statistics, including hours spent in direct patient
care;
(vi) Zip codes of the location where the provider practices;
(vii) Years in practice, years in practice in Washington, location
and years in practice in other jurisdictions;
(viii) Education and training background, including the location
and types of education and training received; and
(ix) Type of facilities where the provider practices.
(b) The department may approve proposals for the distribution of
surveys containing additional data elements to selected health care
professions if it determines that there is a legitimate research
interest in obtaining the information, the additional burden on members
of the health care profession is not unreasonable, the effect on survey
response rates is not unreasonable, and there are funds available. The
department may accept funds through contracts, grants, donations, or
other forms of contributions to support more detailed surveys.
(3) The department must make a public data set available that meets
the confidentiality requirements of subsection (5) of this section.
The department may respond to requests for data and other information
from the registry for special studies and analysis pursuant to a data-sharing agreement. Any use of the data by the requestor must comply
with the confidentiality requirements of subsection (5) of this
section. The department may require requestors to pay any or all of
the reasonable costs associated with such requests that may be
approved.
(4) The failure to complete or return the survey may not be grounds
to withhold, fail to renew, or revoke a license or to impose any other
disciplinary sanctions against a credentialed health care provider.
(5) The department must process the surveys that it receives in
such a way that the identity of individual providers remains
confidential. Data elements related to the identification of
individual providers are confidential and are exempt from RCW 42.56.040
through 42.56.570 and 42.17.350 through 42.17.450, except as provided
in a data-sharing agreement approved by the department pursuant to
subsection (3) of this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 Section 1 of this act takes effect July 1,
2006.