Virginia would review selected stillbirths and infant deaths for prevention

Virginia’s Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Team would study selected deaths and recommend prevention steps. Reviews would cover Virginia stillbirths requiring a state stillbirth certificate and natural deaths of children under 12 months. Reviews would exclude voluntary or therapeutic abortions and infant deaths covered by the State Child Fatality Review Team. Families receiving in-depth interviews and case reviews would have access to grief counseling and other resources determined by the team. Reviews would wait until any police investigation or criminal prosecution ends.

The Chief Medical Examiner or a designee could copy records for reviews, and trained interviewers could interview people. Records could include medical information and records about the death, mother, and family held by courts and public agencies. Federal and state disclosure laws would limit access without consent. A separate requirement for each adult’s consent makes access to mothers’ records unclear. Interviews would require consent from the mother, father, or another legal guardian. Interviewers would use methods designed to avoid further emotional harm and provide information about support services. Requests for records would follow the end of any police investigation or prosecution.

The team would keep individual reviews private and publish statistics without identifying people. Privacy rules would cover records, interviews, and meetings about individual deaths. Violations would be a Class 3 misdemeanor, a criminal offense. Review records could not be used in court or professional discipline. Records obtained independently elsewhere could still be used. Review participants and information providers would have protection from civil lawsuits, except for gross negligence or deliberate misconduct. Statistics would be compiled every three years. After death notification, agencies would keep routinely deleted records for 12 months or until review completion, whichever is longer. The Medical Examiner’s office would destroy family records when the review ends.