§ 5-29-18 - Reports relating to professional conduct and capacity – Regulations – Confidentiality – Immunity.
SECTION 5-29-18
§ 5-29-18 Reports relating to professionalconduct and capacity – Regulations – Confidentiality – Immunity.– (a) The board, with the approval of the director, may adopt regulationsrequiring any person, including, but not limited to, corporations, health carefacilities, health maintenance organizations, organizations and federal, state,or local governmental agencies, or peer review boards to report to the boardany conviction, determination, or finding that a licensed podiatrist hascommitted unprofessional conduct, or to report information which indicates thata podiatrist may not be able to practice podiatry with reasonable skill andsafety to patients as the result of any mental or physical condition. Theregulations shall include the reporting requirements set forth in subsection(b)(1), (2), and (3) of this section.
(b) The following reports, in writing, shall be filed withthe board:
(1) Every insurer providing professional liability insuranceto the podiatrist licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall send acomplete report to the board as to any formal notice of any claim, settlementof any claim or cause of actions, or final judgment rendered in any cause ofaction for damages for death or personal injury caused by the podiatrist'snegligence, error, or omission in practice or his or her rendering ofunauthorized professional services. The report shall be sent within thirty (30)days after service of the complaint or notice, settlement, judgment, orarbitration award on the parties. All of those reports shall set forth anin-depth factual summary of the claim in question.
(2) All hospital and licensed health care facilitiesincluding, but not limited to, nursing homes and health maintenanceorganizations and the director of health must report to the board within thirty(30) days of the action, any action, disciplinary or otherwise, taken for anyreason, which limits, suspends, or revokes a podiatrist's privilege to practiceor requires supervision of a podiatrist either through formal action by theinstitution or faculty or through any voluntary agreement with the podiatrist.
(3) Within ten (10) days after a judgment by a court of thisstate that a podiatrist licensed under the provisions of this chapter has beenconvicted of a crime or is civilly liable for any death or personal injurycaused by his or her negligence, error, or omission in his or her practice orhis or her rendering of unauthorized professional services, the clerk of thecourt which rendered such judgment shall report the judgment to the board.
(c) The board shall report any changes of privileges of whichit is aware to the board of trustees or other appropriate body of all licensedhospitals and health maintenance organizations within thirty (30) days.
(d) The contents of any report file shall be confidential andexempt from public disclosure, except that it may be reviewed:
(1) By the licensee involved or his or her counsel orauthorized representative who may submit any additional exculpatory orexplanatory statements or other information, which statement or otherinformation shall be included in the file; or
(2) By the director, a representative of the board or aninvestigator for the board, who has been assigned to review the activities of alicensed podiatrist.
(e) Upon determination that a report is without merit, theboard's records may be purged of information relating to the report.
(f) If any person refuses to furnish a required report, theboard may petition the superior court of any county in which that personresides or is found, and the superior court shall issue to that person an orderto furnish the required report. Any failure to comply with that orderconstitutes civil contempt.
(g) Every individual, podiatry association, podiatry society,hospital, health care facility, health maintenance organizations, peer reviewboard, health insurance carrier or agent, professional standards revieworganization, and the agency of the federal, state or local government isimmune from civil liability, whether direct or derivative, for providinginformation to the board in good faith pursuant to this statute or theregulations outlined in subsection (a) of this section or requirements ofsubsection (b) of this section.
(h) Nondisclosure agreements are prohibited insofar as theyforbid parties from making reports regarding competency and/or unprofessionalconduct to the board of examiners in podiatry.