President Signs Patient Safety Bill that Encourages Reporting of Medical Errors

July 29, 2005—President George W. Bush signed the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PL 109-41) earlier today that encourages the anonymous reporting of medical errors in an effort to reduce mistakes. The bill overwhelmingly passed in the House on July 27 and the Senate on July 21.

The new law creates a voluntary medical errors reporting system in which the Department of Health and Human Services would certify a number of private and public groups to act as patient safety organizations. The selected organizations would collect and analyze data on medical errors, determine their causes, and develop and disseminate evidence-based information to providers to help them implement changes that would improve patient safety. All reports would be confidential and guarded from use in civil and criminal cases.

During the bill signing ceremony, the President stated, “with this law, we'll be able to obtain more accurate information about medical treatments, and by providing doctors with information about what treatments work and what treatments cause problems, we will reduce medical errors that injure and cause the deaths of thousands of Americans each year.”

Lawmakers have been struggling to address the medical errors issue since 1999 when the Institute of Medicine published a report entitled, “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” that estimated up to 98,000 deaths a year could be attributed to medical errors. Versions of this legislation were approved during the 108th Congress, but the House and Senate could never resolve differences about how to gather and analyze data about medical errors without exposing health care providers to added liability.

ASH will monitor the implementation of this law and keep you informed about the plans for a medical errors reporting system.

If you have any questions, or need additional information, pleae contact ASH Government Relations and Practice Coordinator Stephanie Kart at skart@hematology.org or (202) 776-0544.