New Hampshire Revised Statutes 151:5-c – Proceedings of Residential Care Facility Quality Assurance Program; Confidentiality
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I. To help assure quality care of residents in licensed residential care facilities, such facilities may voluntarily maintain a quality assurance program for its residents as set forth in this section.
II. In this section:
(a) “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. “Records” shall not mean original medical records or other records kept relative to any resident in the course of the business of operating a licensed residential care facility.
(b) “Quality assurance program” means a comprehensive, ongoing, organization-wide system of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the quality and appropriateness of the care provided, so that important problems and trends in the delivery of care are identified and that steps are taken to correct problems and to take advantage of opportunities to improve care.
III. Records of a quality assurance program in a licensed residential care facility, including those of its functional components and committees as defined by the facility’s quality assurance plans, organized to evaluate matters relating to the care and treatment of residents and to improve the quality of care provided, and testimony by owners or members, or both, on the board of directors of the residential care facility, medical and clinical staff, employees, or the committee attendees relating to activities of the quality assurance program, shall be confidential and privileged and shall be protected from direct or indirect means of discovery, subpoena, or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding. However, information, documents, or records otherwise available from original sources shall not be construed as immune from discovery or use in any such civil or administrative action merely because they were presented to a quality assurance program, and any person who supplies information or testifies as part of a quality assurance program, or who is a member of a quality assurance program committee, shall not be prevented from testifying as to matters within his or her knowledge, but such witness shall not be asked about his or her testimony before such program, or opinions formed by him or her, as a result of committee participation. Further, a program’s records shall be discoverable in either of the following cases:
(a) A judicial or administrative proceeding brought by a licensed residential care facility, its quality assurance program, or owners and/or board of directors, to revoke or restrict the license or certification of a staff member; or
(b) A proceeding alleging repetitive malicious action or personal injury brought against a staff member.
IV. A licensed residential care facility, its owners and/or board of directors, or trustees may waive privileges under this section and release information or present records of the quality assurance program by discovery, subpoena, or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding.
V. No owner, directors, trustees, medical or clinical staff, employees, or other attendees of the quality assurance program shall be held liable in any action for damages or other relief arising from the providing of information to a quality assurance program or in any judicial or administrative proceeding.
II. In this section:
Terms Used In New Hampshire Revised Statutes 151:5-c
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- 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.
- following: when used by way of reference to any section of these laws, shall mean the section next preceding or following that in which such reference is made, unless some other is expressly designated. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 21:13
- person: may extend and be applied to bodies corporate and politic as well as to individuals. See New Hampshire Revised Statutes 21:9
- Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
(a) “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. “Records” shall not mean original medical records or other records kept relative to any resident in the course of the business of operating a licensed residential care facility.
(b) “Quality assurance program” means a comprehensive, ongoing, organization-wide system of mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the quality and appropriateness of the care provided, so that important problems and trends in the delivery of care are identified and that steps are taken to correct problems and to take advantage of opportunities to improve care.
III. Records of a quality assurance program in a licensed residential care facility, including those of its functional components and committees as defined by the facility’s quality assurance plans, organized to evaluate matters relating to the care and treatment of residents and to improve the quality of care provided, and testimony by owners or members, or both, on the board of directors of the residential care facility, medical and clinical staff, employees, or the committee attendees relating to activities of the quality assurance program, shall be confidential and privileged and shall be protected from direct or indirect means of discovery, subpoena, or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding. However, information, documents, or records otherwise available from original sources shall not be construed as immune from discovery or use in any such civil or administrative action merely because they were presented to a quality assurance program, and any person who supplies information or testifies as part of a quality assurance program, or who is a member of a quality assurance program committee, shall not be prevented from testifying as to matters within his or her knowledge, but such witness shall not be asked about his or her testimony before such program, or opinions formed by him or her, as a result of committee participation. Further, a program’s records shall be discoverable in either of the following cases:
(a) A judicial or administrative proceeding brought by a licensed residential care facility, its quality assurance program, or owners and/or board of directors, to revoke or restrict the license or certification of a staff member; or
(b) A proceeding alleging repetitive malicious action or personal injury brought against a staff member.
IV. A licensed residential care facility, its owners and/or board of directors, or trustees may waive privileges under this section and release information or present records of the quality assurance program by discovery, subpoena, or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding.
V. No owner, directors, trustees, medical or clinical staff, employees, or other attendees of the quality assurance program shall be held liable in any action for damages or other relief arising from the providing of information to a quality assurance program or in any judicial or administrative proceeding.