News in brief - March 27, 2006

Wisconsin passes medical error tracking bill - Employees resigned, fired over patient records theft in Oregon

Wisconsin passes medical error tracking bill

The Wisconsin Legislature in March approved a bill that would allow hospitals to track medical errors confidentially and to perform other quality improvement activities without being subject to civil liability. The measure, however, allows patients to have access to medical records if they are suing for an injury potentially caused by medical negligence.

"This bill will allow providers to share information on quality and patient safety issues to help establish best practices," said Laura Leitch, general counsel for the Wisconsin Hospital Assn., which co-wrote the measure.

The Wisconsin Medical Society said it supported the bill because it would encourage peer review. But the measure could be improved to ensure physicians also have access to the information, said Mark Grapentine, WMS senior vice president of government relations.

At press time, Gov. Jim Doyle had not indicated whether he would sign the legislation.

Employees resigned, fired over patient records theft in Oregon

Providence Health System in Oregon announced in March the departure of four employees in connection with the theft of a laptop containing the medical records of 365,000 patients in Oregon and Washington.

The data pertained to Providence Home Services patients and was stolen out of an employee's car in December 2005. Included in the records were patients' Social Security numbers and protected health information.

Providence spokesman Gary Walker said three of the four employees chose to resign and one was fired.

"Our goal is to do the right thing -- to set the bar in how organizations should respond to situations such as this," vice president and CEO Russ Danielson said in a statement.

Providence also announced it would support "reasonable legislation" to create a standard for reporting compromised or stolen data. Oregon does not have a security breach notification law requiring companies to alert consumers when their personal information is compromised.

Patients were notified three weeks after the theft, which spurred a class-action lawsuit over possible HIPAA violations by the company. Providence said it has received no verified reports of illegal use of the stolen information.