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Senator Moore praises new federal law creating national database on medical errors |
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August 2, 2005 – Word that President Bush this week signed into law a bill (S 544) that creates a national patient safety database, was received enthusiastically on Beacon Hill. Senator Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge), Senate Chair of the Committee on Health Care Financing and sponsor of state legislation that established the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, expressed high praise for the bi-partisan federal action. “Obtaining more complete information on medical errors will help policy makers and health care leaders to improve patient safety and save thousands of lives and millions of dollars,” Senator Moore explained. “This federal database will help Massachusetts to continue its national leadership in building a safer health care system,” he added. Patient safety has been among Senator Moore’s highest legislative priorities. The legislation, which passed the Senate on July 21 and the House last Wednesday, seeks to encourage health care providers to report medical errors voluntarily to patient safety organizations, which will compile and analyze the data. The patient safety organizations will contract with the providers to identify trends and develop proposals to prevent future medical errors. The data will not identify specific patients, providers or individuals who report medical errors. “While the new federal law does not guarantee providers will report mistakes fails to include federal penalties for medical errors, our Massachusetts law does have enforcement provisions,” Senator Moore explained. “By working with the federal database, and our own data reported to the Lehman Center, the Department of Public Health and the Board of Registration in Medicine will have more tools to do the job of reducing medical mistakes,” Moore added. In addition, patients could not use the data as evidence in medical malpractice lawsuits or other litigation, and accrediting bodies or regulators could not use the data to take action against providers. In signing the new law this week, President Bush said that "by providing doctors with information about what treatments work and what treatments cause problems, we will reduce medical errors that injure and cause the deaths of thousands of Americans each year." J. Edward Hill, president of the American Medical Association, said the law is "the catalyst we need to transform the current culture of blame and punishment into one of open communication and prevention." He added, "Future errors can be avoided as we learn from past mistakes. This law strikes the proper balance between confidentiality and the need to ensure responsibility throughout the health care system." |
