Community mental health centers; quality assurance programs.

(1) As used in this section, the term “community mental health center” means a publicly funded, not-for-profit center that contracts with the department for the provision of inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, or emergency services.

(2) Any community mental health center and any facility licensed pursuant to s. 394.875 shall have an ongoing quality assurance program. The purpose of the quality assurance program shall be to objectively and systematically monitor and evaluate the appropriateness and quality of client care, to ensure that services are rendered consistent with reasonable, prevailing professional standards and to resolve identified problems.

(3) Each facility shall develop a written plan that addresses the minimum guidelines for the quality assurance program. Such guidelines shall include, but are not limited to:

(a) Standards for the provision of client care and treatment practices;

(b) Procedures for the maintenance of client records;

(c) Policies and procedures for staff development;

(d) Standards for facility safety and maintenance;

(e) Procedures for peer review and resource utilization;

(f) Policies and procedures for adverse incident reporting to include verification of corrective action to remediate or minimize incidents and for reporting such incidents to the department by a timeframe as prescribed by rule.

Such plan shall be submitted to the governing board for approval and a copy provided to the department.

(4) The quality assurance program shall be directly responsible to the executive director of the facility and shall be subject to review by the governing board of the agency.

(5) Each facility shall designate a quality assurance manager who is an employee of the agency or under contract with the agency.

(6) Incident reporting shall be the affirmative duty of all staff. Any person filing an incident report shall not be subject to any civil action by virtue of such incident report.

(7) The department shall have access to all records necessary to determine licensee compliance with the provisions of this section. The records of quality assurance programs which relate solely to actions taken in carrying out the provisions of this section, and records obtained by the department to determine licensee compliance with this section, are confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1). Such records are not admissible in any civil or administrative action, except in disciplinary proceedings by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the appropriate regulatory board, nor shall such records be available to the public as part of the record of investigation for, and prosecution in disciplinary proceedings made available to the public by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation or the appropriate regulatory board. Meetings or portions of meetings of quality assurance program committees that relate solely to actions taken pursuant to this section are exempt from s. 286.011.

(8) This section does not apply to hospitals licensed pursuant to chapter 395 or programs operated within such hospitals.