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Medical Errors
Bush Signs Patient Bill to Protect Medical
Professionals Who Report Errors
July 29, 2005 President Bush this morning signed
the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 which features
protection for medical professionals who voluntarily report medical
errors by keeping their names private.
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House Passage of Medical Error Reporting Bill
Applauded by Pharmacists
July 28, 2005 - The American Society of
Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) praised legislation passed Tuesday by
the U.S. House of Representatives that establishes a non-punitive system
enabling health care providers to voluntarily report medical errors or
near misses. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (S. 544)
creates a legal framework to log errors, catalog reports, and identify
trends, essential elements in creating a culture of safety to improve
the quality of medical care.
Read more...
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With this law, we'll be able to obtain more
accurate information about medical treatments. And 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, Bush said at the signing ceremony.
He called it a critical step toward our goal of
ensuring top-quality, patient-driven health care for all Americans.
To see the details of
the bill
click here.
One of those joining the President at the signing
of the bill was J. Edward Hill, M.D., President of the American Medical
Association (AMA)..
"When physicians can report errors in a voluntary
and confidential manner, everyone benefits. 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, said Hill in a statement issued after the
signing.
"Today's signing ceremony is the culmination of
years of hard work by the AMA and its patient safety partners. The true
winners today are our patients, who will benefit from improved safety
and quality health care nationwide," according to Hill
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Side Bar |
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Medical Center Teaching Students to Admit
Errors
July 29, 2005 On the same day President
Bush signed legislation that protects medical professionals who
voluntarily report medical errors, the Morchand Center for
Clinical Competence at The Mount Sinai Medical Center announced
a new program for dealing with the issue of medical errors. The
program will train medical students, clinicians and other
hospital personnel to effectively communicate with patients and
family members when a medical error is made.
Mount Sinais announcement said it has
recognized that in order to improve patient safety,
practitioners must learn from their mistakes. An important stage
in the learning process is to shift away from the prevailing
culture of defensiveness and blame and a move towards a culture
of openness. The Medical Errors Program teaches practitioners to
identify and communicate what went wrong and how to effectively
issue an apology. Participants are evaluated on their ability to
explain what happened, proposals for avoiding a similar mistake
in the future, ability to accept responsibility and apologize
appropriately and proficiency in dealing sensitively and
professionally with a very a uncomfortable situation.
Through the use of professional actors
trained to simulate patients, The Morchand Center trains medical
students, clinicians and other hospital personnel to deal
sensitively and appropriately with patients. Participants learn
to interact and communicate more effectively thereby improving
the quality of the care they provide. |
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President Bush said, The Patient Safety and
Quality Improvement Act will help ensure that Americans continue to
benefit from the greatest medical system in the world. To maintain the
highest standards of care, doctors and nurses must be able to exchange
information about problems and solutions. Yet in recent years, many
doctors have grown afraid to discuss their practices because they worry
that the information they provide will be used against them in a
lawsuit.
This bill will help solve that problem. This is a
common-sense law that gives legal protections to health professionals
who report their practices to patient safety organizations. By providing
critical information about medical procedures, doctors and nurses can
help others learn from their experiences. That's why I said it's a
common-sense law. By making essential information more available across
America, we will help ensure that patients benefit from the best medical
treatment, no matter where they live. That seems to make sense to me,
Bush said.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations also praised the legislation after the signing.
"This bill is a breakthrough in the blame and
punishment culture that has literally held a death grip on health care,"
says Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, Joint Commission. "When
caregivers feel safe to report errors, patients will be safer because we
can learn from these events and put proven solutions into place."
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