The commissioner of health may conduct maternal death studies to assist the planning, implementation, and evaluation of medical, health, and welfare service systems and to reduce the numbers of preventable maternal deaths in Minnesota.
The commissioner has access only to medical data and health records related to deaths that occur on or after July 1, 2000, including the names of the providers, clinics, or other health services such as family home visiting programs; the women, infants, and children (WIC) program; prescription monitoring programs; and behavioral health services, where care was received before, during, or related to the pregnancy or death. The commissioner has access to records maintained by a medical examiner, a coroner, or hospitals or to hospital discharge data, for the purpose of providing the name and location of any pre-pregnancy, prenatal, or other care received by the subject of the data up to one year after the end of the pregnancy.
After the commissioner has collected all data about a subject of a maternal death study needed to perform the study, the data from source records obtained under subdivision 2, other than data identifying the subject, must be transferred to separate records to be maintained by the commissioner. Notwithstanding section 138.17, after the data have been transferred, all source records obtained under subdivision 2 possessed by the commissioner must be destroyed.
Minn. Stat. § 145.901
2001 c 211 s 3; 2007 c 147 art 10 s 15