ANALYSIS OF HOUSE BILL 2963

    Providing for disclosure of information obtained by the department of health related

          to meeting licensing standards in hospitals.

Health Care Committee                          2 February 1998

Washington State House of Representatives

SPONSORS:  Representatives Dyer and Cody; DOH request.

BACKGROUND:  Hospitals are licensed by the Department of Health (DOH) which sets quality assurance standards, conducts site visits and responds to consumer complaints.

Information about complaints, including the result of site visits or any other information about a hospital=s license, is currently not disclosed to the public until there is a formal administrative action taken against the license.  In practice, few formal administrative actions are ever initiated against a hospital license.  When the department finds that a hospital is not meeting quality standards, the hospital is given the opportunity to correct the problem and the department verifies that the hospital has implemented a correction plan.  In the absence of formal administrative actions,  the public has virtually no access to information about a hospital record.

Information and documents associated with peer review committees of private hospitals is exempt from public disclosure.  But peer review committees of public hospitals do not have this exemption.

SUMMARY:  Information received by the DOH relative to a hospital=s license must be disclosed to the public upon request consistent with the provisions of the Public Disclosure Act applicable to information held by state agencies.  Information about licensing inspections and complaint investigations is disclosed to the public no sooner than three days after the hospital receives the resulting assessment report from the department.  Information regarding administrative action against a hospital can be disclosed after the hospital has received the document initiating the administrative action.

However, information and documents created specifically for peer review  quality improvement committees acting on behalf of a public hospital district are exempt from disclosure.