Open Records Decision No. 262
December 1, 1980

	Re:  Whether ambulance activity reports maintained by a municipally-operated 
ambulance are available to public inspection under the Open Records Act

Honorable Clyde A. Wilson, Jr.
City Attorney
P. O. Box 1751
San Angelo, Texas  76902

Dear Mr. Wilson:

	You have requested our decision under the Open Records Act, article 6252-17a, 
V.T.C.S., as to whether certain information contained in reports filed by a municipally-
operated emergency medical service (EMS) are available to the public.  The San Angelo 
Fire Department, which operates the city's EMS, reports the information collected on a 
standard form furnished by the Texas Department of Health.  The request seeks 
disclosure of data in four categories:  incident information, such as date, pick up location, 
type of run, person requesting ambulance, number of miles traveled, and location where 
patient delivered; patient information, including name, address, gender and age; the 
names of the driver and attendant and their respective levels of training; and finally, a 
brief description of the injury or illness, with a checklist indicating the probable cause 
and type of injury and/or the suspected illness and the part of the body affected.

	In Open Records Decision No. 237 (1980), we said that detailed EMS reports 
relating to persons who had given birth under the care of lay midwives were excepted 
from disclosure by either a common law or constitutional right of privacy under section 
3(a)(1) of the Open Records Act.  By contrast, we held in Open Records Decision No. 
258 (1980) that EMS incident reports which provide relatively little detail will not 
ordinarily be protected by either constitutional or common law privacy.  Likewise, we do 
not believe that disclosure of the information requested in the first three categories here 
will, absent exceptional circumstances, raise a cognizable claim of privacy.

	A constitutional right of privacy will ordinarily exist if the information relates to 
marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and 
education.  Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (1976).  The common law privacy right protects 
highly intimate or embarrassing facts about a person such that its disclosure would be 
“highly objectionable to a person of ordinary sensibilities.”  Industrial Foundation of the 
South v. Texas Industrial Accident Board, 540 S.W.2d 668, 683 (Tex. 1976).  
Information about a patient's injury or illness might raise such a claim if it relates, for 
example, to a “drug overdose,” “acute alcohol intoxication,” “obstetrical/gynecological” 
illness, “convulsions/seizures,” or “emotional/mental distress.”  When the injury or 
illness falls within a protected category, we do not believe such information should be 
released.

	We conclude that, except for the specific illness and injury information excepted 
by a common law or constitutional right of privacy under section 3(a)(1), all the 
information requested here should be disclosed.

Very truly yours,

Mark White
Attorney General of Texas

John W. Fainter, Jr.
First Assistant Attorney General

Richard E. Gray III
Executive Assistant Attorney General

Prepared by Rick Gilpin
Assistant Attorney General

APPROVED:
OPINION COMMITTEE

Susan L. Garrison, Acting Chairman
Jon Bible
Rick Gilpin
Bruce Youngblood