§48-25A-3 Responsibilities of the Maternal Mortality Review Team - West Virginia Statutes

§48-25A-3. Responsibilities of the Maternal Mortality Review Team.

(a) The Bureau of Public Health in consultation with the Maternal Mortality Review Team shall, pursuant to the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a, promulgate rules applicable to the following:

(1) The standard procedures for the establishment, formation and conduct of the Maternal Mortality Review Team; and

(2) The protocols for the review of maternal mortalities.

(b) The Maternal Mortality Review Team shall:

(1) Review all deaths of women who die during pregnancy, at the time of birth or within one year of the birth of a child;

(2) Establish the trends, patterns and risk factors;

(3) Provide statistical analysis regarding the causes of maternal fatalities in West Virginia; and

(4) Promote public awareness of the incidence and causes of maternal fatalities, including recommendations for their reduction.

(c) The Maternal Mortality Review Team shall submit an annual report to the Governor and to the Legislature concerning its activities and the incidents of maternal fatalities within the state. The report is due annually on the first day of December. The report is to include statistics setting forth the number of maternal fatalities, identifiable trends in maternal fatalities in the state, including possible causes, if any, and recommendations to reduce the number of preventable maternal fatalities in the state. The report is to also include the number of mothers whose deaths have been determined to have been unexpected or unexplained.

(d) The Maternal Mortality Review Team, in the exercise of its duties as defined in this section, may not:

(1) Call witnesses or take testimony from individuals involved in the investigation of a maternal fatality;

(2) Contact a family member of the deceased mother, except if a member of the team is involved in the investigation of the death and must contact a family member in the course of performing his or her duties outside of the team; or

(3) Enforce any public health standard or criminal law or otherwise participate in any legal proceeding, except if a member of the team is involved in the investigation of the death or resulting prosecution and must participate in a legal proceeding in the course of performing in his or her duties outside of the team.

(e) Proceedings, records and opinions of the Maternal Mortality Review Team are confidential, in accordance with section one, article seven, chapter forty-nine of this code, and are not subject to discovery, subpoena or introduction into evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding. Nothing in this subsection is to be construed to limit or restrict the right to discover or use in any civil or criminal proceeding anything that is available from another source and entirely independent of the proceedings of the Maternal Mortality Review Team.

(f) Members of the Maternal Mortality Review Team may not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding information presented in or opinions formed as a result of a meeting of the team. Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent a member of the Maternal Mortality Review Team from testifying to information obtained independently of the team or which is public information.