PROFESSIONNew Jersey law expands reporting of medical errorsThe law shields both actual and near mistakes from legal discovery.By Andis Robeznieks, amednews staff. May 17, 2004. A conversation about medical liability reform between the head of the New Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior Services and a state senator reportedly led to a new state law that shields analysis and discussions of medical errors from legal discovery. "They were talking about the medical malpractice insurance crisis and how they can help doctors, when someone said 'Why don't we get to the meat of the problem: Reducing medical errors?' " said Laurie Cancialosi, chief of staff for state Sen. Joseph Vitale, sponsor of the New Jersey Patient Safety Act. "So that conversation was the impetus for this." The new law allows for more open discussion of why medical errors occurred and how to prevent them from happening again. Some experts, however, are saying that the impact of medical-error reporting laws is unknown and underreporting remains a serious issue in many states. The New Jersey law, enacted April 27, calls for reporting "serious, preventable adverse events" to the state and to patients or family/guardians. It also allows for confidential, anonymous reporting of near misses, and shields analysis of the errors and near misses from being used as evidence. Although private medical practices are excluded, the law extends beyond the traditional hospital setting to include outpatient clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centers. Except for private practice physician offices, New Jersey "health care facilities" must create patient-safety plans and assemble patient-safety committees. It will be the committees' job to analyze errors and near misses, look for ways to apply evidence-based patient-safety practices and conduct staff patient-safety training. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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