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Your question refers to the recent amendment to the Florida Constitution providing for patient access to information about adverse medical incidents. It is too early to know the full effect of this new constitutional provision. There have been no appellate court decisions explaining the specifics of what type of documents must be produced. However, it is clear that some documents, which have previously enjoyed confidentiality protection, are now in danger of no longer being confidential. Plaintiffs attorneys will now routinely request incident reports, peer review documentation and other records relating to adverse medical incidents. The courts will have to decide whether or not federal law protects the documents requested. In the meantime, you should proceed as if incident reports and quality assurance records might be reviewed as part of litigation or routine requests from patients. Therefore, the language you choose in any incident or quality assurance reports should be factual rather than opinion based. You should avoid language blaming anyone or attributing a cause of an injury to a particular person or event.
Of course, it is prudent to continue to follow the development of this area of the law.