Rules aim for better patient safety through confidential error reports

The goal is to gather data from doctors, hospitals and others to identify risk patterns and share that information widely to prevent mistakes.

By Dave Hansen, AMNews staff. March 10, 2008.

Washington -- Federal regulators have proposed sweeping patient safety rules to give physicians and others a confidential, voluntary way to report medical errors and near mistakes. Several health care organizations applauded the release of the long-awaited regulations but want a closer look before making a final judgment.

The rules, published Feb. 12 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, would implement the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. The law, supported by the American Medical Association, authorizes creating patient safety organizations to which doctors, other health professionals, hospitals and other institutions could report mistakes.

The PSOs would identify trends in errors and share them with the medical community. The idea is to gather information on outcomes for many patients to detect patterns of risk and harm in a variety of health care settings, from doctors' offices to hospitals. The data then could be used to improve safety and quality.

The AMA had pushed the Dept. of Health and Human Services for the regulations' release and welcomed their publication. "The proposed rule is the first step toward implementing this important legislation, which will allow health care professionals to report errors voluntarily without fear of legal prosecution and transform the current culture of blame and punishment into one of open communication and prevention," said AMA Trustee J. James Rohack, MD. "When health care errors can be reported in a voluntary and confidential manner, future errors can be avoided."