The Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) will now have to publicly report certain preventable patient safety errors that occur in New Jersey hospitals due to the passing of bill S-2471, according to The New Jersey Senate Democrats official website.
The bill, S-2471, would require DHSS to include in the annual New Jersey Hospital Performance Report certain patient safety indicators and preventable medical errors on a hospital-by-hospital basis. DHSS would be required to report information on 14 pre-established patient safety indicators, including: foreign body left after medical procedure; postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma; postoperative sepsis; accidental puncture or laceration; or surgery performed on the wrong side, wrong body part, or wrong patient. The patient safety indicators listed in the bill were developed by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality or are listed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as “never” events that are not eligible for payment under Medicare or Medicaid.
The sponsors noted that the information would be available to the public to allow them to make more informed decisions about their health care, and would put pressure on poor performing hospitals to do more to ensure patient safety in New Jersey.
(SOURCE: HCPro Accreditation Connection, http://hcpro.com, June 1, 2009)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:24PM