November 14, 2011

Mr. Ronald J. Bounds

Assistant City Attorney

City of Corpus Christi

P.O. Box 9277

Corpus Christi, Texas 78469-9277

OR2011-16734

Dear Mr. Bounds:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 436290.

The City of Corpus Christi (the "city") received a request for information held by the Corpus Christi Fire Department pertaining to a specified incident. You state the city is providing the requestor with some of the requested information. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information protected by other statutes, such as section 773.091 of the Health and Safety Code, which is applicable to information relating to the provision of emergency medical services ("EMS") and provides, in pertinent part:

(b) Records of the identity, evaluation or treatment of a patient by emergency medical services personnel or by a physician providing medical supervision that are created by the emergency medical services personnel or physician or maintained by an emergency medical services provider are confidential and privileged and may not be disclosed except as provided by this chapter.

. . .

(g) The privilege of confidentiality under this section does not extend to information regarding the presence, nature of injury or illness, age, sex, occupation, and city of residence of a patient who is receiving emergency medical services.

Health & Safety Code § 773.091(b), (g). Upon review we find the submitted information constitutes EMS records maintained by an EMS provider documenting emergency medical service provided to a patient by EMS and, therefore, is generally confidential under section 773.091. See id. § 773.003(8) (defining "emergency medical services" for the purposes of chapter 773 of the Health and Safety Code). We note information made confidential by section 773.091 may be released to "any person who bears a written consent of the patient or other persons authorized to act on the patient's behalf." Id. § 773.092(e)(4); see also id. § 773.093. Section 773.093 provides that a consent for release of EMS records must be in writing, signed by the patient, authorized representative, or personal representative, and specify (1) the information to be covered by the release, (2) the reasons or purposes for the release, and (3) the person to whom the information is to be released. Id. § 773.093(a). Therefore, except for the information subject to section 773.091(g), which is not confidential, the city may only release the submitted EMS records upon receipt of proper consent under section 773.093(a). See id. §§ 773.092, .093. You inform us the city has not received proper consent for release of the submitted information. Thus, the submitted EMS records are confidential and must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 773.091 of the Health and Safety Code, with the exception of the information subject to section 773.091(g), which must be released to the requestor.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Lindsay E. Hale

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LEH/ag

Ref: ID# 436290

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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