Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 37 > Chapter 2 > Part 4 - Medical Practice Group Quality Assurance

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Data: means written reports, notes, or records or oral reports or proceedings created by or at the request of a quality assurance committee that may be shared with a medical practitioner, including the medical practitioner being reviewed, and that are used exclusively in connection with quality assessment or improvement activities, including but not limited to the professional training, supervision, or discipline of a medical practitioner by a medical practice group. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Health care facility: has the meaning provided in 50-5-101. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Medical practice group: means a group of two or more medical practitioners practicing medicine in a professional corporation, professional limited liability company, partnership, sole proprietorship, or associations of these entities. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• Medical practitioner: means an individual licensed by the state of Montana to engage in the practice of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, optometry, or a nursing specialty described in 37-8-202 or licensed as a physician assistant pursuant to 37-20-203. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• occurrence report: means the written business record of a medical practice group that:

  (i)may be but is not required to be created by the staff involved in response to an untoward event, including but not limited to a patient injury, adverse outcome, or interventional error, for the purpose of ensuring a prompt evaluation of the event; and

  (ii)is a factual rendition of the event. See Montana Code 37-2-401

• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Quality assurance committee: means a duly appointed committee within a medical practice group that administers a quality assurance program and may be called by another name within the medical practice group, including but not limited to a utilization review, peer review, medical ethics review, professional standards review, quality assurance, or quality improvement committee. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• Quality assurance program: means a comprehensive, ongoing system of mechanisms established by a medical practice group for monitoring and evaluating the quality and appropriateness of the care provided to patients in order to:

  (a)identify and take steps to correct any significant problems and trends in the delivery of care; and

  (b)take advantage of opportunities to improve care. See Montana Code 37-2-401

• Records: means records of interviews, internal reviews and investigations, and all reports, statements, minutes, memoranda, charts, statistics, and other documentation generated during the activities of a quality assurance program. See Montana Code 37-2-401
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testify: means every mode of oral statement under oath or affirmation. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203