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Patient safety professionals who pine
for better health care error data may have reasons to get their
hopes up. Both Democratic and Republican representatives
introduced a bill last week that would create a national health
care error-reporting system. The bill, called the "Patient
Safety and Quality Improvement Act," would establish local
public or private "patient safety organizations," to
which health care providers would voluntarily report errors and
other information. Data reported to these organizations would not
be considered "discoverable" in a civil or
administrative proceeding, nor be used against providers by
accrediting organizations, according to the text of the bill.
The organizations would then
develop and give out recommendations, protocols, or best practices
for patient safety to providers. Since the bill is sponsored by a
number of both Democrats and Republicans, it may have a good
chance of being passed, Wendy Maneval, Esq., told PSM. In
addition, she sees similarities between this bill and S. 10, which
was introduced by Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) and other Democrats
last month. "It's interesting that they both have very
similar provisions," she says. "It shows, number one,
that it's hit the federal radar screen at all, . . . and it also
shows that there's some consensus about the way of addressing
patient safety issues, and that they feel that there needs to be
some kind of federal privilege recognized for patient safety
documents."
To view the full text of the bill,
go to http://thomas.loc.gov/
and search for H.R. 663.
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