Tennessee legislation · 114th General Assembly
Tennessee HB2259: AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68, Chapter 11, relative to quality improvement committees.
Status: Chaptered, May 26, 2026
Fiscal Summary NOT SIGNIFICANT Bill Summary Present law requires records of a quality improvement committee ("QIC"), and testimony or statements by a healthcare organization's officers, directors, trustees, healthcare providers, administrative staff, employees or other committee members or attendees relating to activities of the QIC, to be confidential, privileged, and protected from direct or indirect means of discovery, subpoena or admission into evidence in any judicial or administrative proceeding. Any person who supplies information, testifies, or makes statements as part of a QIC is not required to provide information as to the information, testimony or statements provided to or made before such a committee or opinions formed by such person as a result of committee participation. However, information, documents or records, which are not produced for use by a QIC or which are not produced by persons acting on behalf of a QIC, and are otherwise available from original sources, are not immune from discovery or use in any judicial or administrative proceeding merely because such information, documents or records were presented during proceedings of such committee. Present law authorizes a QIC to share information and documents, including complaints, incident reports, and testimony and statements by any person to the QIC, with one or more other QICs. Information and documents so disclosed, and any information and documents created or maintained as a result of the sharing of such information and documents, is confidential, privileged, and protected from direct or indirect means of discovery, subpoena or admission into evidence, to the same extent as provided above. The QIC sharing such information with another QIC must determine the manner and process by which it will share such information and documents, which process may inclu
What the bill says
From the amended text:
Senate Health and Welfare 1 Amendment No. 1 to SB2413 Crowe Signature of Sponsor AMEND S e n ate Bill No. 2413* House Bill No. 2259 by deleting all language after the enacting clause and substituting: SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-11-272(b), is amended by adding the following as new, appropriately designated subdivisions: ( ) "Adverse healthcare incident" means an objective and definable outcome arising from or related to patient care that results in the death or injury of a patient; ( ) "Open discussion": (A) Means any communication that is made under this section and includes memoranda, work product, documents, and other materials that are prepared for, or submitted in the course of or in connection with, communications under this section; and (B) Does not include any communications, memoranda, work product, documents, or other materials that are otherwise subject to discovery and that were not prepared specifically for use pursuant to this subdivision (b)( ); SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-11-272(c), is amended by adding the following as new subdivisions: (4) A good faith disclosure of information related to an activity of a QIC made by a healthcare provider or healthcare organization to a patient or family member of a patient in an open discussion is not a waiver of the privilege and confidentiality protections provided under …