The department shall keep at its office, accessible only to the secretary and to proper officers and employees, and to other persons authorized by the secretary, a record showing the residence, sex, age, nativity, occupation, civil condition and date of entrance, or commitment of every person, patient, inmate or convict, in the several public institutions governed by the department, the date of discharge of every person from the institution, and whether such discharge is final: PROVIDED, That in addition to this information the superintendents for the hospitals for the mentally ill shall also state the condition of the person at the time of leaving the institution. The record shall also state if the person is transferred from one institution to another and to what institution; and if dead the date and cause of death. This information shall be furnished to the department by the several institutions, and also such other obtainable facts as the department may from time to time require, not later than the fifth day of each month for the month preceding, by the chief executive officer of each public institution, upon blank forms which the department may prescribe.
RCW 72.01.290