PROFESSIONState legislatures tackle medical error reportingBills have been proposed in several states aimed at reducing medical errors and improving patient safety.By Damon Adams, amednews staff. March 12, 2001. More than a year after the Institute of Medicine issued its scathing report on medical errors, state legislatures across the country are still grappling with ways to address the issue. Eight new laws were passed in 2000 in the report's aftermath. And in legislative sessions so far this year, five states have introduced bills to deal with medical errors. Massachusetts state Democratic Sen. Richard T. Moore has proposed several bills aimed at reducing medical and prescription errors. California will weigh a bill to impose stiff penalties for hospitals that fail to report errors. Maine is considering a mandatory reporting system for adverse events. New Jersey lawmakers will look at a patient protection act and bills to establish a state medical error reduction study commission. And tougher restrictions against physicians who were previously disciplined for medical errors have been proposed in Arizona. The November 1999 IOM report, "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System," found that preventable medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people each year. The report called on states to create mandatory reporting systems, starting with hospitals. "The report definitely can be described as a call to action," said Jill Rosenthal, policy analyst for the National Academy for State Health Policy. "It presented the information in a way that really got the public's attention." Following the report's release, 15 states introduced 45 bills related to medical errors in 2000, according to the NASHP, which said eight of those measures then became law. For example:
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Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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