§30-3C-3. Confidentiality of records.

(a) Any document prepared by or on behalf of a health care provider for the purpose of improving the quality, delivery, or efficiency of health care or for the purpose of credentialing or reviewing health care providers is confidential and privileged and shall not be subject to discovery in a civil action or administrative proceeding.  Such documents include, without limitation:

(1) Nursing home, as referred to in §55-7B-6(e) of this code, incident or event reports, except reports pertaining to the plaintiff of that civil action, or reports of same or similar incidents within a reasonable time frame of the events at issue in the civil action, containing only factual information, but excluding personal identification information;

(2) Documents related to review organization proceedings for hiring, disciplining, terminating, credentialing, issuing staff privileges, renewing staff privileges, or alleged misconduct of a health care provider;

(3) Review organization documents;

(4) Quality control and performance improvement documents;

(5) Documents satisfying regulatory obligations related to quality assurance and performance improvement; and

(6) Reviews, audits, and recommendations of consultants or other persons or entities engaged in the performance of peer review.

(b) A person who testifies before a review organization, or who is a member of a review organization, shall not be required to testify regarding, or be asked about, his or her testimony before such review organization, deliberations of the review organization, or opinions formed as a result of the review organization’s proceedings. A person who testifies before a review organization, or who is a member of a review organization, shall not be prevented from testifying in court or an administrative hearing as to matters within his or her personal knowledge.

(c)  All peer review proceedings, communications, and documents of a review organization and all records developed or obtained during an investigation conducted pursuant to §30-3-1 et seq., §30-3E-1 et seq., and/or §30-14-1 et seq. of this code shall be confidential and privileged and shall not be subject to discovery in any civil action or administrative proceeding: Provided, That an individual may be given access to any document that was used as the basis for an adverse professional review action against him or her, subject to such protective order as may be appropriate to maintain the confidentiality of the information contained therein. Privilege is not deemed to be waived unless the review organization executes a written waiver authorizing the release of such peer review proceedings, communications, or documents.

(d) Nothing in this section limits the disclosure of peer review proceedings, communications, and documents by a review organization or a health care facility to a medical licensing board pursuant to the provisions of §30-3-1 et seq. and §30-14-1 et seq. of this code.