Fatality review teams measure clears committee

Help define it correctly

                                 
(Story Courtesy Of Kentucky Today)

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – Legislation that the sponsor said was her third attempt at putting a measure together dealing with state child and maternal fatality review teams, cleared the Senate Families and Children Committee on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 74 is sponsored by Sen. Shelley Funke-Frommeyer, R-Alexandria. 

“We continue to polish what I would say are the rough edges,” she said, thanking Committee Chairman Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, for his input. “Our visit with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services also really helped us define it correctly.”

Among the changes, removing the state child fatality review team from the maternal fatality review team, according to Funke-Frommeyer. “The way we had it originally was as if they were one team, but they are distinctly separate, so we will clean up the statute language by separating those out. It also makes the maternal fatality review team permanent.”

The bill also defines the jurisdiction of the maternal fatality review team as covering a death during pregnancy and within one year of the end of pregnancy, of either the child or mother.

In addition, the state child fatality review team, which is part of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, must cooperate as needed with the external child fatality and near fatality review panel.

“We spoke with the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet,” Funke-Frommeyer testified, “and recognized where our bill may have been creating confusion, and in fact, we were able to polish up some of those edges.”

The bill also provides for more specific support with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and specifies that any information gathered is privileged.

“It’s not meant to be accessible for a subpoena or introduction into evidence,” she stated. “That was some vey good feedback we received that some of the language appeared that we were actually establishing this from a prosecutorial standpoint and that was not our purpose. Our purpose was to improve the way we deliver care and solve these issues.”

The bill cleared the committee on an 8-0 vote, and now heads to the Senate floor.