Wisconsin Legislative Council
AMENDMENT MEMO
One Ea st Ma in Stre e t, Suite 401 • Ma dison, W I 53703 • (608) 266-1304 • le g.council@le gis.wisconsin.gov • http://www.le gis.wisconsin.gov/lc
Memo published: October 13, 2023 Contact: Amber Otis, Senior Staff Attorney, and Kelly McGraw, Staff Attorney
2023 Senate Bill 177 Senate Amendment 1
2023 SENATE BILL 177
Wisconsin’s current statutes do not expressly govern fatality review teams, though several types of such
teams currently exist in Wisconsin based on voluntary efforts primarily organized by counties, with
state-level technical assistance available for certain types of teams.
Senate Bill 177 establishes fatality review teams under state law by creating a framework governing such
teams, if established locally, and requiring the Department of Health Services (DHS) to provide certain
state-level assistance to any such established teams. Under the bill, a fatality review team is defined as a
multidisciplinary and multiagency team reviewing one or more types of death among children or adults,
and developing recommendations to prevent future deaths of similar circumstances. The bill generally
governs a team’s responsibilities, if established, as well as an established team’s ability to access certain
records, confidentiality requirements, and disclosure of information.
DHS’s Duties and Authority
Under the bill, DHS must establish a fatality review program comprised of local fatality review teams
established at the option of a county, a local health department, a tribal health department, or a
combination of these entities. The bill also authorizes, but does not require, DHS to create state fatality
review teams. The bill requires DHS to perform various duties, in consultation with other state agencies
as appropriate, and allows DHS to contract with an entity to perform any of its duties under the bill.
Team Functions
The bill contains general provisions governing any type of fatality review team. The bill identifies
examples of the types of deaths that may constitute a reviewable death, including those caused by
unintentional injury, overdose, suicide, and homicide, among other causes. The bill also provides a non-
exhaustive list of potential team members.
Under the bill, a fatality review team has the purpose of gathering information about reviewable deaths
to examine risk factors and understand how deaths may be prevented, through identifying
recommendations for cross-sector, system-level policy and practice changes, and promoting
cooperation and coordination among the agencies involved in understanding causes of reviewable
deaths or in providing services to surviving family members.
Team Record Access and Confidentiality
The bill authorizes a fatality review team to access records from a variety of sources, such as certain
state agencies, law enforcement, medical examiners, and coroners, health care providers, human
service agencies, schools, and the prescription drug monitoring program, among others, subject to
certain restrictions under the bill and current law. - 2 -
Information and records provided to or created by a fatality review team are confidential, subject to
limited exceptions provided under the bill, and are not subject to Wisconsin’s public records laws. The
bill requires team members, and other individuals invited to attend a team meeting, to sign a
confidentiality agreement before participating in or attending a fatality review team meeting. The bill
authorizes disclosure of information if such disclosure serves a team’s purpose and certain other
conditions are met, such as the information does not allow for identification of individuals and does not
contain conclusory information attributing fault. The bill exempts fatality review team meetings from
Wisconsin’s Open Meetings Law, but does allow for public meetings to share summary findings and
recommendations, subject to certain limitations.
SENATE AMENDMENT 1
Senate Amendment 1 expands the non-exhaustive list of types of reviewable deaths to include maternal
deaths occurring during or within a year of a pregnancy. Relatedly, the amendment adds references to
maternal mortality review teams in the bill’s provisions referencing other specific types of teams for
purposes of access to the records of the prescription drug monitoring program.
BILL HISTORY
The Joint Legislative Council introduced Senate Bill 177 on April 3, 2023. On September 29, 2023,
Senator Ballweg offered Senate Amendment 1. On October 12, 2023, the Senate Committee on Health
recommended adoption of the amendment, and passage of the bill, as amended, on votes of Ayes, 6;
Noes, 0.
For a full history of the bill, visit the Legislature’s bill history page.
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