Section 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.