|  July
14, 2003
The
Honorable Judd Gregg
Chairman
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear
Chairman Gregg:
Thank
you for sharing with us the June 27, 2003, draft of the new
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act. The Alliance of
Specialty Medicine, a coalition of 12 medical organizations
representing over 160,000 specialty care physicians in the
United States, appreciates this opportunity to submit our
comments on the draft legislation.
Specialist
physicians strive to provide the best medical care to their
patients. As in all other professions, however, errors can
occur in the delivery of that care. Creating a health care
environment that encourages the development of safety systems
and eliminates the culture of blame is essential for improving
patient safety. This draft legislation helps to ensure that
patient safety data is privileged and confidential.
Voluntary
sharing of information promotes and is often a prerequisite
to improvements in health care quality at all levels of our
complex, interconnected health care delivery system. This
draft bill appropriately provides for voluntary, non-identifiable
reporting of patient safety data. The sharing of this information
may enable qualified researchers to identify specific techniques
and processes of care to improve outcomes. To encourage such
information exchange, your draft provides appropriate legal
protections for health care providers that disclose medical
errors.
There
are a couple sections of the draft that we believe warrant
further clarification. In the section on disclosure not subject
to protection, “use or disclosure by a provider or patient
safety organization in connection with providing treatment,
improving patient safety, health care quality or administrative
efficiency, or any other customary activity of the provider
or use in obtaining payment” appears rather broad. We
understand that this provision is intended to allow for the
customary operation of the
healthcare system, so that health care providers may use patient
safety information for treatment and internal uses without
giving up privilege. However, if patient safety information
is used by a health care provider to improve patient care
AND the same information is reported to a patient safety organization,
the legal protection otherwise afforded to the reporting provider
may be questioned.
Under
the same section, it is stated that an accrediting body shall
not require a provider to report patient safety data as a
condition of accreditation. We have some concern over how
this may impact the quality improvement survey of health care
organizations. If patient safety information is given to an
accreditor, the provider of the data should not lose its privilege.
Accreditation bodies voluntarily collect sentinel event information
for the purpose of improving the quality of health care, this
function should not be impeded nor singled out.
Again,
we are pleased with how the draft legislation creates a non-punitive
environment for reporting adverse outcomes, and includes adequate
legal protections for the providers who supply voluntarily
such information to patient safety organizations.
We
hope this information is helpful to you. The Alliance of Specialty
Medicine, whose mission is to improve access to quality medical
care for all Americans through the unified voice of specialty
physicians promoting sound federal policy, stands ready to
assist you on this and other important health care policy
issues facing our nation.
Sincerely,
American
Academy of Dermatology Association
American Association of Neurological Surgeons/ Congress of
Neurological Surgeons
American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons
American College of Cardiology
American College of Emergency Physicians
American College of Radiology
American Gastroenterological Association
American Society for Clinical Pathology
American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
American Urological Association
National Association of Spine Specialists
Society of Thoracic Surgeons |
