BILL REQ. #:  S-5104.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/7/06.   

     AN ACT Relating to health professions work force supply and demographics information; adding a new section to chapter 43.70 RCW; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that people of color experience significant disparities from the general population in education, employment, healthy living conditions, access to health care, and other social determinants of health. The legislature intends to address barriers to gender-appropriate and culturally and linguistically appropriate health care and health education materials, including increasing the number of female and minority health care providers, through expanded recruiting, education, and retention programs. The legislature finds that before developing a work force that is representative of the diversity of the state's population, relevant and accurate data on health care professionals, students in health care professions, and recipients of health services must first be collected.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 43.70 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) To the extent funds are appropriated for this purpose, the department shall periodically, in collaboration with the work force training and education coordinating board, distribute survey questions for the purpose of gathering data related to work force supply and demographics to all health care providers who are licensed to practice in Washington.
     (2)(a) At a minimum, the survey shall include questions related to understanding the following characteristics of the health care work force:
     (i) Specialty;
     (ii) Age;
     (iii) Race or ethnicity;
     (iv) Hours in practice per week;
     (v) Practice statistics, including hours spent in direct patient care;
     (vi) Zip code of the location where the provider practices;
     (vii) Years in practice, years in practice in Washington, and location and years in practice in other jurisdictions; and
     (viii) Type of facility 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 requester must comply with the confidentiality requirements of subsection (5) of this section. The department may require requesters 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 shall process the surveys that it receives in such a way that the identity of individual providers remains anonymous. Data elements related to the identification of individual providers shall be confidential and shall be exempt from chapter 42.56 RCW, except as provided in a data-sharing agreement approved by the department pursuant to subsection (3) of this section.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   This act takes effect July 1, 2006.