Posted on: Friday, May 13, 2005
Relief in sight for traffic tied up by investigators
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Police are hoping they can clear out certain traffic-accident scenes more quickly because of a bill signed into law last week.
The amendment clarifies existing law by specifying that hospitals, clinics and medical professionals must release to police any medical information regarding patients under their care who were involved in motor-vehicle collisions.
Such information can be key for police officers on the scene of a traffic accident who need to determine whether to keep lanes or entire roads closed, said Capt. Gregory T. Lefcourt of the Honolulu Police Department's legislative liaison's office.
Motorists from Central and West O'ahu to East Honolulu have long grumbled about freeway closures caused by investigations that police are required to conduct in major accidents.
The new law is necessary to clarify the intent of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which many healthcare providers felt left unclear the type of information that could be released to law enforcement officials, Lefcourt said.
"They felt that the law didn't allow them (to release information) so they would have civil liability," he said. "What we are looking for would be if a critical person got upgraded to serious, then we could open up the freeway. And that's important because the longer the freeway is closed, the longer people are inconvenienced."
A determination that someone has been killed or critically injured requires the presence of vehicular homicide investigators, who conduct a more thorough study of a scene. Road closures can sometimes be exacerbated if investigators must fight the traffic caused by an accident to get to a scene.
The new law may help a little to speed up the reopening of a highway in cases where there is an actual death or critical injury since investigators would get their information more quickly.
Where it could have a much larger impact, however, may be in assisting officers in cases when they are still trying to determine whether a death or critical injury has occurred.
"Fairly frequently," Lefcourt said, a traffic victim will be evacuated from an accident scene in critical condition only to be upgraded to serious condition or better by the time the ambulance reaches the hospital.
If on-scene officers could get immediate or updated responses from a hospital or clinic about the status of those involved, it would allow them to open a lane or a road, he said. "At that point, we can open up the freeway because it doesn't mandate a full-on investigation."
Providing support for the bill at the Legislature were The Queen's Medical Center and the Healthcare Association of Hawai'i.
Monica Ivey, Queen's public relations coordinator, said the hospital has wanted to assist officers but "Hawai'i hospitals previously were restricted from releasing motor-vehicle accident information to the police without patient consent, which is often difficult to obtain in serious trauma cases."
Lefcourt credited medical officials, police, lawmakers and the governor's office for working cooperatively on the bill.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
