Florida Senate - 2019                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 452
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì229654?Î229654                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  02/19/2019           .                                
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       The Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs (Gibson)
       recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Section 415.1103, Florida Statutes, is created
    6  to read:
    7         415.1103 Elder abuse fatality review teams.—
    8         (1)(a) An elder abuse fatality review team may be
    9  established in each judicial circuit to review deaths of elderly
   10  persons alleged or found to have been caused by, or related to,
   11  abuse or neglect. The review teams are housed, for
   12  administrative purposes only, in the Department of Elderly
   13  Affairs.
   14         (b) An elder abuse fatality review team may include, but is
   15  not limited to, representatives from the following entities in
   16  the review team’s judicial circuit:
   17         1. Law enforcement agencies;
   18         2. The state attorney;
   19         3. The medical examiner;
   20         4. A county court judge;
   21         5. Adult protective services;
   22         6. The area agency on aging;
   23         7. The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program;
   24         8. The Agency for Health Care Administration;
   25         9. The Office of the Attorney General;
   26         10.The Office of the State Courts Administrator;
   27         11.The clerk of the court;
   28         12.A victim services program;
   29         13.An elder law attorney;
   30         14.Emergency services personnel;
   31         15.A certified domestic violence center;
   32         16.An advocacy organization for victims of sexual
   33  violence;
   34         17.A funeral home director;
   35         18.A forensic pathologist;
   36         19.A geriatrician;
   37         20.A geriatric nurse;
   38         21.A geriatric psychiatrist or other individual licensed
   39  to offer behavioral health services;
   40         22.A hospital discharge planner;
   41         23.A public guardian; or
   42         24.Any other persons who have knowledge regarding fatal
   43  incidents of elder abuse, domestic violence, or sexual violence,
   44  including knowledge of research, policy, law, and other matters
   45  connected with such incidents involving elders, or who are
   46  recommended for inclusion by the review team.
   47         (c)A state attorney, or his or her designee, may initiate
   48  the establishment of a review team in his or her judicial
   49  circuit and may call the first organizational meeting of the
   50  team. At the initial meeting, members of the review team shall
   51  choose two members to serve as co-chairs and shall establish a
   52  schedule for future meetings.
   53         (d)Participation in a review team is voluntary. Members of
   54  the review team shall serve without compensation and may not be
   55  reimbursed for per diem or travel expenses.
   56         (e)Members shall serve for terms of 2 years, to be
   57  staggered as determined by the co-chairs. Chairs may be
   58  reelected by a majority vote of the review team but not for more
   59  than two consecutive terms.
   60         (f)A review team shall determine the local operations of
   61  the team, including, but not limited to, the process for case
   62  selection. Reviews must be limited to closed cases in which an
   63  elderly person’s death is verified by the state attorney to have
   64  been caused by abuse or neglect. All identifying information
   65  concerning the person must be redacted in documents received for
   66  review. The review team shall meet at least once each fiscal
   67  year.
   68         (g)Administrative costs of operating the review team must
   69  be borne by the team members or entities that they represent.
   70         (2) An elder abuse fatality review team in existence on
   71  July 1, 2019, may continue to exist and shall comply with the
   72  requirements created in this section.
   73         (3) An elder abuse fatality review team shall do all of the
   74  following:
   75         (a) Review deaths of elderly persons in its judicial
   76  circuit alleged or found to have been caused by, or related to,
   77  abuse or neglect.
   78         (b) Consider the events leading up to a fatal incident,
   79  available community resources, current law and policies, and the
   80  actions taken by systems or individuals related to the fatal
   81  incident.
   82         (c) Identify potential gaps, deficiencies, or problems in
   83  the delivery of services to elderly persons by public and
   84  private agencies which may be related to deaths reviewed by the
   85  review team.
   86         (d) Whenever possible, develop communitywide approaches to
   87  address causes of, and contributing factors to, deaths reviewed
   88  by the review team.
   89         (e) Develop recommendations and potential changes in law,
   90  rules, and policies to support the care of elderly persons and
   91  to prevent elder abuse deaths.
   92         (4)(a)Review teams in this state may share with each other
   93  any relevant information that pertains to the review of the
   94  death of an elderly person.
   95         (b)A review team member may not contact, interview, or
   96  obtain information by request directly from a member of the
   97  deceased elder’s family as part of the review unless a team
   98  member is authorized to do so in the course of his or her
   99  employment duties. A member of the deceased elder’s family may
  100  voluntarily provide information or records to a review team.
  101         (5)(a) Annually by September 1, each elder abuse fatality
  102  review team shall submit a summary report to the Department of
  103  Elderly Affairs which includes, but is not limited to:
  104         1. Descriptive statistics regarding cases reviewed by the
  105  review team, including demographic information on victims and
  106  the causes and nature of deaths;
  107         2. Current policies, procedures, rules, or statutes that
  108  the review team identified as contributing to the incidence of
  109  elder abuse and elder deaths, and recommendations for system
  110  improvements and needed resources, training, or information
  111  dissemination to address those identified issues;
  112         3. Any other recommendations to prevent deaths from elder
  113  abuse or neglect, based on an analysis of the data and
  114  information presented in the report; and
  115         (b)Annually by November 1, the Department of Elderly
  116  Affairs shall prepare a summary report of the review team
  117  information required under paragraph (a). The department shall
  118  provide the summary report to the Governor, the President of the
  119  Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the
  120  Department of Children and Families.
  121         (6)Information and records acquired by an elder abuse
  122  fatality review team are not subject to discovery or
  123  introduction into evidence in any civil or criminal action or
  124  administrative or disciplinary proceeding by any state or local
  125  government department or agency if the information or records
  126  arose out of the matters that are the subject of review by a
  127  review team, unless the information and records are not
  128  discoverable from any other source. Information and records that
  129  are available from other sources are not immune from discovery
  130  or introduction into evidence solely because the information,
  131  documents, or records were presented to or reviewed by a review
  132  team.
  133         (7)A person who has attended a meeting of an elder abuse
  134  fatality review team or who has otherwise participated in the
  135  activities authorized by this section may not be allowed or
  136  required to testify in any civil, criminal, administrative, or
  137  disciplinary proceeding as to any information or records
  138  produced or presented to the review team during a meeting or
  139  other activity authorized by this section, unless such testimony
  140  is necessary to determine the information or records that were
  141  available to the review team. However, this paragraph does not
  142  prevent any person who testifies before the team or who is a
  143  member of the team from testifying as to matters otherwise
  144  within his or her knowledge.
  145         (8)There is no monetary liability on the part of, and a
  146  cause of action for damages may not arise against, any member of
  147  an elder abuse fatality review team due to the performance of
  148  his or her duties as a review team member in regard to any
  149  discussions by, or deliberations or recommendations of, the team
  150  or the member, unless such member acted in bad faith, with
  151  wanton and willful disregard of human rights, safety, or
  152  property.
  153         (9) Elder abuse fatality review teams and their members may
  154  not disclose any information that is confidential pursuant to
  155  law.
  156         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.
  157  
  158  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  159  And the title is amended as follows:
  160         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  161  and insert:
  162                        A bill to be entitled                      
  163         An act relating to elder abuse fatality review teams;
  164         creating s. 415.1103, F.S.; authorizing the
  165         establishment of elder abuse fatality review teams in
  166         each judicial circuit and housing the review teams,
  167         for administrative purposes only, in the Department of
  168         Elderly Affairs; providing conditions for review team
  169         membership, establishment, and organization;
  170         specifying requirements for the review team operations
  171         and meeting schedules; assigning responsibility for
  172         paying the administrative costs of review team
  173         operations to the team members or the entities they
  174         represent; authorizing elder abuse fatality review
  175         teams in existence on a certain date to continue;
  176         requiring such existing teams to comply with specified
  177         requirements; specifying review team duties; requiring
  178         each review team to submit annually a summary report
  179         by a certain date to the Department of Elderly Affairs
  180         containing specified information; requiring the
  181         department to prepare annually a summary report on the
  182         review teams’ information and submit the summary to
  183         the Governor, the Legislature, and the Department of
  184         Children and Families; exempting certain information
  185         and records from discovery; providing an exception;
  186         restricting the testimony of certain persons about
  187         information or records presented during meetings or
  188         activities of the review teams; providing immunity
  189         from monetary liability for review team members under
  190         certain conditions; prohibiting review teams and
  191         review team members from disclosing confidential
  192         information; providing an effective date.