Florida Amendment 7, Right to Review Records of Adverse Medical Incidents Initiative (2004)

Florida Amendment 7
Election date November 2, 2004
Topic Healthcare and Tort law
Status Approved
Type Initiated constitutional amendment	Origin Citizens

Florida Amendment 7 was on the ballot as an initiated constitutional amendment in Florida on November 2, 2004. It was approved.

A “yes” vote supported allowing patients the right to review records of health care facilities' or providers' relating to adverse medical incidents.

A “no” vote opposed allowing patients the right to review records of health care facilities' or providers' relating to adverse medical incidents.

Election results

Florida Amendment 7
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		5,849,125	81.16%
No		1,358,183	18.84%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Amendment 7 was as follows:

“

Current Florida law restricts information available to patients related to investigations of adverse medical incidents, such as medical malpractice. This amendment would give patients the right to review, upon request, records of health care facilities' or providers' adverse medical incidents, including those which could cause injury or death. Provides that patients' identities should not be disclosed.

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Constitutional changes

The text of the amendment read:

"Section 22. Patients’ Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents. " (a) In addition to any other similar rights provided herein or by general la w, patients have a right to have access to any records made or received in the course of business by a health care facility or provider relating to any adverse medical incident. "(b) In providing such access, the identity of patients involved in the incidents shall not be disclosed, and any privacy restrictions imposed by federal law shall be maintained. "(c) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings: "(1) The phrases "health care facility" and "health care provider" have the meaning given in general law related to a patient’s rights and responsibilities. "(2) The term "patient" means an individual who has sought, is seeking, is undergoing, or has undergone care or treatment in a health care facility or by a health care provider. "(3) The phrase "adverse medical incident" means medical negligence, intentional misconduct, and any other act, neglect, or default of a health care facility or health care provider that caused or could have caused injury to or death of a patient, including, but not limited to, those incidents that are required by state or federal law to be reported to any governmental agency or body, and incidents that are reported to or reviewed by any health care facility peer review , risk management, quality assurance, credentials, or similar committee, or any representative of any such committees. "(4) The phrase "have access to any records" means, in addition to any other procedure for producing such records provided by general law, making the records available for inspection and copying upon formal or informal request by the patient or a representative of the patient, provided that current records which have been made publicly available by publication or on the Internet may be "provided" by reference to the location at which the records are publicly available."

Path to the ballot

See also: Signature requirements for ballot measures in Florida

The ballot measure was an initiated constitutional amendment. Proponents collected signatures to place the initiative on the ballot.

See also

2004 Measures

• 2004 Measures
• Healthcare on the ballot
• Tort law on the ballot
• 2004 legislative sessions

Florida

• Florida ballot measures
• Florida ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Florida Division of Elections, "Initiatives / Amendments / Revisions Database"