New Jersey Senate Approves Medical Error Disclosure Bill
The Senate earlier this month approved a bill that will require medical errors made at hospitals to be disclosed to the public. The bill is expected to be signed by Governor Jon Corzine. When that happens, patients will be able to check the safety of hospitals through a breakdown of medical errors, giving them the opportunity to make an informed decision about the hospital they are considering.
Currently, data on medical errors is collected and released every year, but patients have no way of knowing the kind or frequency of medical errors that have taken place at a particular hospital. The medical error data provided tends to be general in nature, and is pretty useless to a patient looking for a facility to undergo a procedure.
Last year alone, according to the Department of Health and Senior Services, 77 patients died in 535 medical errors that are so preventable they are called ”never events,” meaning that they never should have occurred. As Senator Stephen Sweeney, D-3 of West Deptford, who is one of the sponsors of the bill, puts it, consumers are allowed to gauge the safety and efficiency of automobiles and appliances through rating systems. There is no reason why patients shouldn’t be able to do the same.
The bill will also forbid doctors and hospitals from billing patients or insurers for certain medical errors.
As a medical malpractice lawyer, I believe that it has suited hospitals and health care facilities very well to not have vital and specific information available to the public thus far. This bill will serve, as assembly man Paul Moriarty, D-4 Washington Township puts it, as a "report card," which will encourage hospitals to enhance their levels of care.
If the Governor signs the bill, New Jersey will become the second state after Minnesota to make public specific hospital safety information. In other states, calls are on for allowing hospitals to decide if an error has been made and to make appropriate payments to patients after medical errors have taken place without the need for malpractice suits (via Ronald Miller of Miller and Zois on his Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog). New Jerseyans have much to be proud of.
