Title 23
Health and Safety

Chapter 17.21
The Rhode Island Patient Safety Act of 2008

§ 23-17.21-4. Definitions.

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) “Department” means the Rhode Island department of health.

(b) “Director” means the director of the Rhode Island department of health.

(c) “Healthcare facility” means any corporation, limited liability company, facility, or institution licensed by this state to provide health care or professional services, or an officer, employee, or agent thereof acting in the course and scope of his or her employment.

(d) “Near misses” means circumstances in which a patient safety event is narrowly averted.

(e) “Patient safety activities” means: (1) Efforts to improve patient safety and the quality of healthcare delivery; (2) The collection and analysis of patient safety work product; (3) The development and dissemination of information with respect to improving patient safety, such as recommendations, protocols, or information regarding best practices; (4) The utilization of patient safety work product for the purposes of encouraging a culture of safety and of providing feedback and assistance to effectively minimize patient risk; (5) The maintenance of procedures to preserve confidentiality with respect to patient safety work product; and (6) The provision of appropriate security measures with respect to patient safety work product.

(f) “Patient safety event” means those events as defined by the National Quality Forum, Institute of Medicine, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and as further defined by the quality of care advisory committee, as established herein, and shall include near misses.

(g) “Patient safety organization (PSO)” means any public or private organization certified by the director, or component of any such organization, whose activity is to improve patient safety and the quality of healthcare delivery for patients receiving care through the collection, aggregation, analysis, investigation, and/or processing of medical or healthcare related information submitted to it by reporting entities. A PSO shall not mean any agency or public body as defined in § 38-2-2(1).

(h) “Patient safety work product” means all reports, records, memoranda, analyses, statements, root cause analyses, and written or oral statements, that: (1) A healthcare facility or provider prepares for the purpose of disclosing a patient safety event, and are disclosed, to a patient safety organization; (2) Are received from a reporting entity, and are created and analyzed by a patient safety organization; or (3) Directly or indirectly contain deliberations, analytical process, recommendations, conclusions, or other communications of a patient safety organization and between a patient safety organization and healthcare providers or facilities.

(i) “Identifiable patient safety work product” means patient safety work product that: (1) Is presented in a form and manner that allows the identification of any provider or reporting entity that is a subject of the work product, or any providers or reporting entities that participate in activities that are a subject of the work product; (2) Constitutes individually identifiable health information as that term is defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and its implementing regulations (45 C.F.R. Parts 160-164); or (3) Is presented in a form and manner that allows the identification of an individual.

(j) “Nonidentifiable patient safety work product” means patient safety work product that is not identifiable patient safety work product as defined in subsection (h) herein.

(k) “Reporting entities” means all hospitals, nursing facilities, and freestanding ambulatory surgical centers licensed under chapter 17 of this title.