CA Court Pulls Hospital Citations Out of Hiding

http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/20/ca-court-pulls-hospital-citations-out-of-hiding.htm

California's public-health agency redacted too much from records requested by journalists investigating mistreatment of patients at state hospitals, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

     During an ongoing investigation into alleged mistreatment of mentally ill and developmentally disabled patients at state-owned hospitals, the Center for Investigative Reporting filed a public records request with the Department of Public Health in 2011 for all citations issued by the agency to the facilities under examination.

     Although the Long-Term Care Act - passed in 1973 - expressly states that citations issued by DPH are public records, the agency turned over heavily redacted copies to the journalists. It said another state law prevented it from releasing confidential information obtained while providing care to the patients which was included on the citations as required by the aforementioned act.

     The matter ended up in a Sacramento County court, which ruled that the Long-Term Care Act - passed later and containing more specifics - trumped the health-and-welfare statute called the Lanterman Act of 1967, which DPH relied on to redact the citations.