Confidentiality Laws and Rules
Confidentiality is essential to the child death review process. Information about the deceased child and their family, as well as information about service providers involved with the family is to be shared only in the context of the review process at the county and state levels.
Prior to child death review, participating team members and guests must agree not to disclose information from the review process, including information shared in preparation for the reviews, during the reviews and at sub-group meetings. Sample confidentiality agreements for team members and guests are available in the toolkit.
Confidentiality laws and rules, such as those summarized below, were enacted to protect individuals from unwarranted invasions of their privacy and protect the interests of society.
ORS 418.795 Confidentiality of information and records
- (1) All information and records acquired by a county child abuse multidisciplinary team established under
ORS 418.747 or a child fatality review team established under
ORS 418.785 in the exercise of its duties are confidential and may be disclosed only when necessary to carry out the purposes of the child abuse investigation or the child fatality review process.
- (2) A member agency of a county child abuse multidisciplinary team or a member of the team may use or disclose protected health information without obtaining an authorization from an individual or a personal representative of the individual if use or disclosure is necessary for public health purposes, including the prevention, investigation, and treatment of child abuse.
- (3) A child fatality review team shall have access to and subpoena power to obtain all medical records, hospital records and records maintained by any state, county, or local agency, including, but not limited to, police investigative data, coroner or medical examiner investigative data and social services records, as necessary to complete a child abuse investigation or a review of a specific fatality under ORS 418.785.
- (4) As used in this section, “personal representative” and “protected health information” have the meanings given those terms in
ORS 192.556.
ORS 432.060 Records of mortality and morbidity studies
All records of interviews, reports, studies, and statements procured by or furnished to the Health Division in connection with special morbidity and mortality studies, are confidential insofar as the identity of an individual patient is concerned. Thus, records collected and maintained by the Public Health Division on behalf of the State Team are deemed confidential.
ORS 432.350 Vital records exempt from public disclosure
Vital records and reports, and documents, data and information related to vital records and reports, are exempt from public disclosure under ORS 192.311 to 192.478. Except, a government agency may in certain circumstances be furnished with copies of documents or other data from the system of vital statistics, provided the copies or data are used solely in the conduct of the government agency’s official duties. The government agency must contain measures to protect the confidentiality and security of the copies or data and must prohibit the further release of any personally identifiable information by the government agency unless explicitly provided in the required agreement.
In the interest of family privacy and to protect children, families, and other recipients of services, all client specific information is confidential.