Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to designate patient safety work product as privileged and not subject to: (1) a subpoena or discovery in a civil, criminal, or administrative disciplinary proceeding against a provider; (2) disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or a similar law; (3) admission as evidence in any civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding; or (4) admission in a professional disciplinary proceeding. Defines "patient safety work product" as any data, reports, records, memoranda, analysis, or written or oral statements which: (1) are assembled or developed by a provider for reporting to a patient safety organization (PSO); (2) are developed by a PSO for patient safety activities and which could result in improved patient safety or health care quality or outcomes; or (3) identify or constitute the deliberations or analysis of, or identify the fact of reporting pursuant to, a patient safety evaluation system.

Designates such work product as confidential, but permits: (1) disclosure for use in a criminal proceeding after a court determines that such work product contains evidence of a criminal act and is material to the proceeding and not reasonably available from any other source; (2) disclosure to the extent required to seek redress for violations through a civil action; and (3) disclosure if authorized by each provider identified in such work product.

Excludes certain disclosures from confidentiality protection, including: (1) disclosures to carry out patient safety activities; (2) disclosures of nonidentifiable work product; (3) disclosures otherwise allowed under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) confidentiality regulations to entities carrying out sanctioned research, evaluation, or demonstration products; (4) disclosures by a provider to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); (5) voluntary disclosures by a provider to the provider's accrediting body; (6) disclosures necessary for business operations consistent with the goals of this Act; (7) disclosures to law enforcement authorities relating to the commission of a crime if the person making the disclosure reasonably believes the disclosure is necessary; and (8) disclosures that do not include materials that assess the quality of care of an identifiable provider or pertain to actions or failures to act by an identifiable provider by a person other than a PSO. Excludes from privilege any voluntary disclosure of nonidentifiable work product.

The summary continues for 10 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House with amendment(s)" stage on July 27, 2005. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.