Tightening the EMS Information Laws in South Carolina

Four state legislators from South Carolina have vowed to support a change in state law that would open public access to local EMS data to help improve oversight of those departments. Last month, the S.C. Attorney General's Office said that information regarding EMS operations, including ambulance response times, cannot be made public, citing to patient privacy concerns.

IslandPacket.com reports:

The current law, which took effect five years ago, is "broader than it needs to be," said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort. "We need to err on the side of transparency in oversight of government."

"There are some legitimate restrictions on data, such as patients' names and specific medical conditions, said Davis, who had not been elected when the law passed. "We have to protect those, but also be careful not to throw the baby out with bath water and provide no transparency. The law needs to be more narrowly drawn."

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