§ 3006. Quality improvement program. 1. By January first, nineteen
hundred ninety-seven, every ambulance service and advanced life support
first response service shall establish or participate in a quality
improvement program, which shall be an ongoing system to monitor and
evaluate the quality and appropriateness of the medical care provided by
the ambulance service or advanced life support first response service,
and which shall pursue opportunities to improve patient care and to
resolve identified problems. The quality improvement program may be
conducted independently or in collaboration with other services, with
the appropriate regional council, with an EMS program agency, with a
hospital, or with another appropriate organization approved by the
department. Such program shall include a committee of at least five
members, at least three of whom do not participate in the provision of
care by the service. At least one member shall be a physician, and the
others shall be nurses, or emergency medical technicians, or advanced
emergency medical technicians, or other appropriately qualified allied
health personnel. The quality improvement committee shall have the
following responsibilities:

(a) to review the care rendered by the service, as documented in
prehospital care reports and other materials. The committee shall have
the authority to use such information to review and to recommend to the
governing body changes in administrative policies and procedures, as may
be necessary, and shall notify the governing body of significant
deficiencies;

(b) to periodically review the credentials and performance of all
persons providing emergency medical care on behalf of the service;

(c) to periodically review information concerning compliance with
standard of care procedures and protocols, grievances filed with the
service by patients or their families, and the occurrence of incidents
injurious or potentially injurious to patients. A quality improvement
program shall also include participation in the department's prehospital
care reporting system and the provision of continuing education programs
to address areas in which compliance with procedures and protocols is
most deficient and to inform personnel of changes in procedures and
protocols. Continuing education programs may be provided by the service
itself or by other organizations; and

(d) to present data to the regional medical advisory committee and to
participate in system-wide evaluation.

2. The information required to be collected and maintained, including
information from the prehospital care reporting system which identifies
an individual, shall be kept confidential and shall not be released
except to the department or pursuant to section three thousand four-a of
this article.

3. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, none of the records,
documentation, or committee actions or records required pursuant to this
section shall be subject to disclosure under article six of the public
officers law or article thirty-one of the civil practice law and rules,
except as hereinafter provided or as provided in any other provision of
law. No person in attendance at a meeting of any such committee shall be
required to testify as to what transpired thereat. The prohibition
related to disclosure of testimony shall not apply to the statements
made by any person in attendance at such a meeting who is a party to an
action or proceeding the subject of which was reviewed at the meeting.
The prohibition of disclosure of information from the prehospital care
reporting system shall not apply to information which does not identify
a particular ambulance service or individual.

4. Any person who in good faith and without malice provides
information to further the purpose of this section or who, in good faith
and without malice, participates on the quality improvement committee
shall not be subject to any action for civil damages or other relief as
a result of such activity.