2020 Arkansas Code
Title 20 - Public Health and Welfare
Subtitle 2 - Health and Safety
Chapter 15 - Disease and Disease Prevention Generally
Subchapter 24 - Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes Quality Review Committee
§ 20-15-2404. Confidentiality
(a)
(1) Information, records, reports, statements, notes, memoranda, or other data collected under this subchapter are not admissible as evidence in any action of any kind in any court or before any other tribunal, board, agency, or person.
(2) Information, records, reports, statements, notes, memoranda, or other data collected under this subchapter shall not be exhibited or disclosed in any way, in whole or in part, by any officer or representative of the Department of Health or any other person, except as necessary for the purpose of furthering the review of the Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes Quality Review Committee of the case to which they relate.
(3) A person participating in a review shall not disclose, in any manner, the information so obtained except in strict conformity with such review project.
(b) All information, records of interviews, written reports, statements, notes, memoranda, or other data obtained by the department, the committee, and other persons, agencies, or organizations so authorized by the department under this subchapter are confidential.
(c)
(1) All proceedings and activities of the committee under this subchapter, opinions of members of the committee formed as a result of such proceedings and activities, and records obtained, created, or maintained pursuant to this subchapter, including records of interviews, written reports, and statements procured by the department or any other person, agency, or organization acting jointly or under contract with the department in connection with the requirements of this subchapter, are confidential and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act of 1967, § 25-19-101 et seq., relating to open meetings, subject to subpoena, discovery, or introduction into evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding.
(2) However, this subchapter does not limit or restrict the right to discover or use in any civil or criminal proceeding anything that is available from another source and entirely independent of the committee's proceedings.
(d)
(1) Members of the committee shall not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding the information presented in or opinions formed as a result of a meeting or communication of the committee.
(2) This subchapter does not prevent a member of the committee from testifying to information obtained independently of the committee or which is public information.
