§ 1555. Information related to maternal mortality

(a)(1) Health care providers; health care facilities; clinics; laboratories; medical records departments; and State offices, agencies, and departments shall report all maternal mortality deaths to the Chair of the Maternal Mortality Review Panel and to the Commissioner of Health or designee.

(2) The Commissioner and the Chair may acquire the information described in subdivision (1) of this subsection from health care facilities, maternal mortality review programs, and other sources in other states to ensure that the Panel's records of Vermont maternal mortality cases are accurate and complete.

(b)(1) The Commissioner shall have access to individually identifiable information relating to the occurrence of maternal deaths only on a case-by-case basis where public health is at risk. As used in this section, "individually identifiable information" includes vital records; hospital discharge data; prenatal, fetal, pediatric, or infant medical records; hospital or clinic records; laboratory reports; records of fetal deaths or induced terminations of pregnancies; and autopsy reports.

(2) The Commissioner or designee may retain identifiable information regarding facilities where maternal deaths occur and geographic information on each case solely for the purposes of trending and analysis over time. In accordance with the rules adopted pursuant to subdivision 1556(4) of this title, all individually identifiable information on individuals and identifiable information on facilities shall be removed prior to any case review by the Panel.

(3) The Chair shall not acquire or retain any individually identifiable information.

(c) If a root cause analysis of a maternal mortality event has been completed, the findings of such analysis shall be included in the records supplied to the review Panel. (Added 2011, No. 35, § 2, eff. May 18, 2011.)