Patient Safety Act Updated- New Jersey Hospitals Where Serious Medical Errors Occured May Soon be Identified
New Jersey hospitals may soon be required to reveal not only the serious mistakes at their facility that have contributed to patient injuries or death, but also the identity of the facility. Until now, the state was not required to reveal the facilities responsible for making mistakes including such preventable ones as operating on the wrong part, leaving behind medical instruments or devices in the patients' body or allowing situations to develop that could lead to infections.
When the Patient Safety Act was passed 4 years ago, it required New Jersey's hospitals to report medical and surgical errors that occurred at the facility to the Department of Health and Senior Services. It was believed that Information about medical mistakes would foster a culture of accountability and openness. Since the Act was passed, more numbers of errors are beginning to be reported, helping the DHSS to add to its database of errors that are likely to happen in a New Jersey hospital, and the best ways to help prevent these in future. At the time the Act was passed, legislators believed that hospitals would be more open about mistakes and disclosing information about these, if their names were not revealed. The bill was passed against the protests of patient safety groups who believed that such secrecy protected hospitals unfairly.
As covered in a recent article in the Star Ledger: "The state would cull the information from billing records and publish it in its annual New Jersey Hospital Performance Report and make it available on the state website, Health and Senior Services Commissioner Heather Howard said."
"The bill also prevents hospitals that made the mistakes -- as well as physicians who have acknowledged playing a significant role in the error -- from seeking any payment for medical care associated with the error. " I often receive inquiries from people who believe that they were victim's of medical malpractice and they cannot believe that they are still responsible for the physician's bills. This part of the legislation may bring about fundamental fairness in these situations.
The bill (S2471), approved unanimously by the Senate Health Senior Citizens and Human Services Committee in Trenton yesterday, provides broader disclosure under a compromise that hospital groups, the AARP, unions and state officials supported in principle.
It would require the health department to reveal the hospitals responsible for committing what the federal government deems the 14 most egregious mistakes. Those include operating on the wrong body part, leaving a sponge or other device inside a patient's body and allowing or creating a blood infection following surgery.
Since the Patient Safety Act was passed, critics have argued that the Act does not work to protect patients because it does not allow for the release of information about the specific hospitals where major surgical and medical errors were made. Knowing how many medical errors and what kind of errors have occurred in the state hospitals doesn't help patients make a decision while selecting a hospital for treatment. With this new legislation now giving patients access to the names of the hospitals where major mistakes have occurred, they are in a better position to make a decision based on comprehensive and accurate information. A law is not really a law if it doesn’t go as far it should to protect the rights of the people it's meant to protect. The reluctance of hospitals to have their identity revealed cannot be enough reason to keep this vital information from the public. As a Monmouth County medical malpractice lawyer who sees the results of preventable hospital errors on patients, I believe that this new legislation is just what the doctor ordered.
