2006 Minnesota Statutes

145.901 MATERNAL DEATH STUDIES.
    Subdivision 1. Purpose. The commissioner of health may conduct maternal death studies
to assist the planning, implementation, and evaluation of medical, health, and welfare service
systems and to reduce the numbers of preventable maternal deaths in Minnesota.
    Subd. 2. Access to data. (a) The commissioner of health has access to medical data as
defined in section 13.384, subdivision 1, paragraph (b), medical examiner data as defined in
section 13.83, subdivision 1, and health records created, maintained, or stored by providers as
defined in section 144.335, subdivision 1, paragraph (b), without the consent of the subject of
the data, and without the consent of the parent, spouse, other guardian, or legal representative of
the subject of the data, when the subject of the data is a woman who died during a pregnancy or
within 12 months of a fetal death, a live birth, or other termination of a pregnancy.
The commissioner has access only to medical data and health records related to deaths
that occur on or after July 1, 2000.
(b) The provider or responsible authority that creates, maintains, or stores the data shall
furnish the data upon the request of the commissioner. The provider or responsible authority may
charge a fee for providing the data, not to exceed the actual cost of retrieving and duplicating the
data.
(c) The commissioner shall make a good faith reasonable effort to notify the parent, spouse,
other guardian, or legal representative of the subject of the data before collecting data on the
subject. For purposes of this paragraph, "reasonable effort" means one notice is sent by certified
mail to the last known address of the parent, spouse, guardian, or legal representative informing
the recipient of the data collection and offering a public health nurse support visit if desired.
(d) The commissioner does not have access to coroner or medical examiner data that are
part of an active investigation as described in section 13.83.
    Subd. 3. Management of records. After the commissioner has collected all data about a
subject of a maternal death study needed to perform the study, the data from source records
obtained under subdivision 2, other than data identifying the subject, must be transferred to
separate records to be maintained by the commissioner. Notwithstanding section 138.17, after
the data have been transferred, all source records obtained under subdivision 2 possessed by the
commissioner must be destroyed.
    Subd. 4. Classification of data. (a) Data provided to the commissioner from source records
under subdivision 2, including identifying information on individual providers, data subjects,
or their children, and data derived by the commissioner under subdivision 3 for the purpose
of carrying out maternal death studies, are classified as confidential data on individuals or
confidential data on decedents, as defined in sections 13.02, subdivision 3, and 13.10, subdivision
1 , paragraph (a).
(b) Information classified under paragraph (a) shall not be subject to discovery or
introduction into evidence in any administrative, civil, or criminal proceeding. Such information
otherwise available from an original source shall not be immune from discovery or barred from
introduction into evidence merely because it was utilized by the commissioner in carrying out
maternal death studies.
(c) Summary data on maternal death studies created by the commissioner, which does not
identify individual data subjects or individual providers, shall be public in accordance with
section 13.05, subdivision 7.
History: 2001 c 211 s 3