AGING AND DISABILITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
2005 BH "Dear Provider" Letters
August 8, 2005
ADSA BH 2005-#010
QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR BOARDING HOMES
Dear Boarding Home Provider:
The legislature recently passed Substitute House Bill 1569 regarding quality assurance in boarding homes, nursing homes, hospitals, peer review organizations, and coordinated quality improvement plans. The Governor signed the bill, which became effective July 24, 2005.
While the boarding home continues to be able to choose whether or not to have a quality assurance (QA) committee, the bill amends the boarding home statute RCW 18.20.390.
Here are a few highlights of the bill:
- If the boarding home offers the department QA documents as evidence of compliance with requirements, the documents are protected.
- QA committees under boarding homes, hospitals, health care providers, and other health care institutions and medical facilities are allowed to share information with each other and these documents will not be subject to the discovery process.
- The department is not liable for an inadvertent disclosure, a disclosure for a federal or state audit, or disclosure of documents incorrectly marked by the facility as QA committee documents.
Substitute House Bill 1569 can be accessed online at:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2005-06/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Law%202005/1569-S.SL.pdf
You should not provide QA documents to your licensors. The requirements for QA committees in boarding homes continue to be permissive; it is not required. QA documents are documents that include analysis and trending of certain issues, they are not a record of individual resident incidents and issues. It is important that you label QA documents correctly and keep these documents apart from your documents of investigating separate incidents.
If you have any questions about the statutory changes related to QA, please contact your
RCS Field Manager.
Sincerely,
Joyce Pashley Stockwell, Director
Residential Care Services
