Public Act 93-0492

SB1414 Enrolled                      LRB093 03379 AMC 09887 b

    AN ACT to amend the Hospital Licensing Act.

    Be it enacted by the People of  the  State  of  Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:

    Section  5.   The  Hospital  Licensing  Act is amended by
changing Section 6.17 as follows:

    (210 ILCS 85/6.17)
    Sec. 6.17.  Protection  of  and  confidential  access  to
medical records and information.
    (a)  Every hospital licensed under this Act shall develop
a medical record for each of its patients as required by  the
Department by rule.
    (b)  All   information   regarding   a  hospital  patient
gathered by the hospital's medical staff and its  agents  and
employees  shall  be  the  property and responsibility of the
hospital and must be protected from inappropriate  disclosure
as provided in this Section.
    (c)  Every hospital shall preserve its medical records in
a  format  and  for a duration established by hospital policy
and for not less than 10 years, provided that if the hospital
has been notified  in  writing  by  an  attorney  before  the
expiration  of  the  10  year  retention period that there is
litigation  pending  in  court  involving  the  record  of  a
particular patient as possible evidence and that the  patient
is  his  client  or  is  the  person  who has instituted such
litigation against his client, then the hospital shall retain
the record of that patient until notified in writing  by  the
plaintiff's  attorney,  with  the approval of the defendant's
attorney of record, that the case  in  court  involving  such
record  has  been  concluded or for a period of 12 years from
the date that the record was produced, whichever occurs first
in time.
    (d)  No member of a hospital's medical staff and no agent
or employee of  a  hospital  shall  disclose  the  nature  or
details  of  services  provided  to patients, except that the
information  may  be  disclosed  to  the   patient,   persons
authorized   by  the  patient,  the  party  making  treatment
decisions, if the patient is incapable  of  making  decisions
regarding   the   health  services  provided,  those  parties
directly involved with providing treatment to the patient  or
processing  the  payment  for  that  treatment, those parties
responsible for peer review, utilization review  or,  quality
assurance,  risk  management,  or  defense  of claims brought
against the hospital arising  out  of  the  care,  and  those
parties   required  to  be  notified  under  the  Abused  and
Neglected  Child  Reporting  Act,   the   Illinois   Sexually
Transmissible   Disease   Control  Act,  or  where  otherwise
authorized or required by law.
    (e)  The  hospital's  medical  staff  members   and   the
hospital's  agents and employees may communicate, at any time
and in any fashion,  with  legal  counsel  for  the  hospital
concerning  the  patient medical record privacy and retention
requirements of this Section and any care or  treatment  they
provided  or  assisted in providing to any patient within the
scope of their employment or affiliation with the hospital.
    (e-5)  Notwithstanding  subsections  (d)  and  (e),   for
actions  filed on or after January 1, 2004, after a complaint
for healing art malpractice is served upon  the  hospital  or
upon  its  agents  or  employees,  members  of the hospital's
medical  staff  who  are  not  actual  or   alleged   agents,
employees,  or  apparent  agents  of  the  hospital  may  not
communicate  with legal counsel for the hospital or with risk
management of the hospital concerning the  claim  alleged  in
the   complaint  for  healing  art  malpractice  against  the
hospital except with the patient's consent  or  in  discovery
authorized  by  the  Code  of  Civil Procedure or the Supreme
Court rules.  For the  purposes  of  this  subsection  (e-5),
"hospital"  includes  a  hospital  affiliate  as  defined  in
subsection (b) of Section 10.8 of this Act.
    (f)  Each  hospital licensed under this Act shall provide
its federally designated organ  procurement  agency  and  any
tissue bank with which it has an agreement with access to the
medical  records  of  deceased  patients  for  the  following
purposes:
         (1)  estimating  the  hospital's  organ  and  tissue
    donation potential;
         (2)  identifying   the   educational  needs  of  the
    hospital with respect to organ and tissue donation; and
         (3)  identifying the  number  of  organ  and  tissue
    donations  and  referrals  to  potential organ and tissue
    donors.
    (g)  All hospital and  patient  information,  interviews,
reports,  statements,  memoranda,  and other data obtained or
created by  a  tissue  bank  or  federally  designated  organ
procurement  agency from the medical records review described
in subsection (f) shall be privileged, strictly confidential,
and used only for the purposes put forth in subsection (f) of
this Section and shall not  be  admissible  as  evidence  nor
discoverable  in  an  action of any kind in court or before a
tribunal, board, agency, or person.
    (h)  Any person who, in good faith,  acts  in  accordance
with  the  terms  of this Section shall not be subject to any
type  of  civil  or  criminal  liability  or  discipline  for
unprofessional  conduct   for   those   actions   under   any
professional licensing statute.
    (i)  Any  individual  who  wilfully or wantonly discloses
hospital or medical record information in violation  of  this
Section  is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.  As used in this
subsection, "wilfully or wantonly" means a course  of  action
that shows an actual or deliberate intention to cause harm or
that,  if  not intentional, shows an utter indifference to or
conscious  disregard  for  the  safety  of  others  or  their
property.
    (j)  The changes to this Section made by this  amendatory
Act of the 93rd General Assembly apply to any action filed on
or after January 1, 2004.
(Source: P.A. 91-526, eff. 1-1-00.)

    Section  99.  Effective  date.   This Act takes effect on
January 1, 2004.