The bill directs the Washington State Department of Health to keep the existing statewide trauma data registry until it creates a new statewide time-sensitive emergencies data repository by January 1, 2031, and it requires specified hospitals, facilities, providers, and prehospital services to begin quarterly reporting to that repository in a department-approved format beginning on that date. It also requires the department to establish a statewide electronic EMS data system and adopt rules requiring licensed ambulance and aid services to report patient encounter data, with that EMS system including data on suspected drug overdoses for purposes such as connecting individuals to substance use disorder supports. The department may contract with a single entity to develop and administer the repository through a competitive procurement and must establish data validation, continuous quality improvement, regional quality assurance programs, and annual public aggregate reporting beginning July 1, 2033. The bill modifies existing law (amending RCW 70.168.090 and RCW 70.168.150) and creates new procedural reporting, data collection, oversight, and confidentiality rules rather than creating criminal penalties. It authorizes technical assistance and limited funding support for critical access and rural hospitals and prehospital services, permits the department to use existing data sources and data-sharing agreements to minimize new reporting, and allows hospitals to be given “deemed status” as a primary stroke center if they hold Joint Commission certification. Participating hospitals must engage in internal and regional quality improvement and in recognized data collection systems; hospitals may advertise participation but may not claim verified certification without external, nationally recognized verification. The bill makes individually identifying patient, provider, and facility outcome data confidential and exempt from public disclosure and generally not subject to subpoena or admissible in civil actions, with limited court-ordered exceptions after in camera review, and allows the department to require requestors to pay reasonable costs for special data studies. The extracted text is incomplete in places: portions of subsection language are missing, the amendment text for RCW 70.168.150 is not shown, specific data elements and the rulemaking timeline for EMS reporting are not defined here, and some referenced advisory committee authorities and prior work are not included in the provided material.

If enacted, the Health Department must keep the existing trauma registry running until it builds a broader statewide time-sensitive emergencies repository by January 1, 2031 and start taking quarterly data from hospitals, prehospital services, and other providers about trauma, cardiac, and stroke events. The department will competitively contract for the repository, set up a statewide EMS reporting system requiring licensed ambulance and aid services to send patient encounter data (including suspected overdoses), provide technical help and some equipment/training support to rural and critical access providers within available appropriations, and begin publishing annual aggregate performance reports starting July 1, 2033. The immediate impacts fall on the Department of Health (more contracting, rulemaking, data validation, and oversight work) and on hospitals and ambulance/prehospital services (new ongoing reporting duties, participation in internal and regional quality improvement, possible costs for systems, training, and equipment). Critical access and rural hospitals are specifically targeted for assistance but that help and other supports are tied to funding appropriations, so the scale of support is unclear. The bill also keeps strong confidentiality protections for patientand provider-identifying data and leaves important details—like exact data elements to be collected, the timing for EMS reporting rules, and funding amounts—unspecified.