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Hospitals respond to Sen. Moore’s patient safety initiative
November 23, 2007...Massachusetts hospitals have voluntarily agreed to adopt an initiative proposed in legislation by Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, that will benefit patients throughout the Commonwealth. Beginning early next year, hospitals will implement policies not to charge patients who experience serious medical errors, known as “Never events.” The Massachusetts Hospital Association, which represents all of the acute care hospitals in the state, announced this week, that all hospitals in Massachusetts will adopt a uniform policy to not charge patients or insurers for “adverse or, so-called never events” effective in early 2008. The state would become only the second state in the nation to adopt such a comprehensive patient safety policy. “Never events,” are nine adverse events defined by the National Quality Forum as events that should never, but do sometimes, occur in hospitals. Specifically, these events are: surgery on the wrong body part, surgery on the wrong patient, a wrong surgical procedure, retention of a foreign object in the patient, an incompatible blood-associated injury, an air embolism-associated injury, a medication error injury, artificial insemination using the wrong donor, and cases of an infant discharged to the wrong family. Senator Moore is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1271 which would direct the new Massachusetts Quality and Cost Council to develop regulations that would require hospitals to report “never events” when they occur and prohibit hospitals from receiving reimbursements from patients, insurers or other third-party payors. Moore’s bill, which was co-sponsored by Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, Reps. Jennifer Callahan, D-Sutton, Geraldo Alicea, D-Charlton, and other legislators, was the subject of a legislative hearing by the Committee on Public Health on October 10. “I am encouraged by the pro-active stance of the state’s hospitals to adopt such a consumer-friendly policy,” Sen. Moore stated. “If hospitals know that they won’t be paid for their mistakes, they will be much more diligent in preventing them from occurring in the first place.” Moore noted that he still hopes that his bill will be enacted by the Legislature since it would prevent any weakening of resolve by hospitals in the future and would establish penalties for failure to deliver on this promise. Sen. Moore is the Senate Chairman of the Legislature’s influential Committee on Health Care Financing, and is a nationally recognized leader in health care, especially in the area of patient safety. He is the author of legislation that established the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction within the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Additionally, he led efforts in the new Massachusetts Health Care Reform Law that established a statewide hospital infection prevention initiative by the Department of Public Health. “This effort represents a major step forward and builds on several groundbreaking transparency and quality initiatives that have put Massachusetts ahead of the curve nationally,” said Lynn Nicholas, FACHE, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. “This policy sends a strong message to patients that their hospital is committed to doing everything possible to eliminate these types of events.” James Conway, Vice Chairman of the Massachusetts Quality and Cost Council and Senior Vice President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, stated: “The leadership demonstrated by this action by the state’s hospitals signals strongly the energy and resolve our state’s health care executives are bringing to advancing the quality and safety of care in Massachusetts. It also establishes a model of accountability for other states and provider groups around the nation to learn from and emulate.” “This represents an important step forward for the entire health care community,” said Dr. Marylou Buyse, a practicing primary care physician and President of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. “We applaud this effort and look forward to working with the hospitals to put it into place. For more information on Sen. Moore’s work in the Legislature, including his health care initiatives, please visit www.senatormoore.com. |
