Vt. hospitals announce errors policy
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By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: January 5, 2008
MONTPELIER — Vermont's network of hospitals announced Friday a new statewide policy not to seek payments from patients or insurance companies for medical errors that result in serious harm.
Vermont is now the third state in the country to have its network of hospitals agree on a uniform policy regarding medical errors or incorrect surgeries — although many, if not all, of the hospitals in the state had similar internal policies.
"This policy will go a long way in improving patient safety in the hospitals," said Beatrice Grause, president of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, who made the announcement Friday morning at the Statehouse. "There is a strong move toward safety and more accountability at the hospitals, and that's where this uniform policy is coming from."
Representatives of the hospitals outlined eight areas of medical error that they would not collect payment for, such as performing surgery on the wrong body part or wrong patient or injuries arising from being prescribed incorrect medications.
Grause said the outlined errors are based on definitions created by the National Quality Forum, a national nonprofit group that outlines quality care efforts, measurements and reporting. She added that the hospitals have chosen these eight — which are a subset of the 28 medical errors outlined by the NQF — because these are the ones that cause serious harm and are preventable by the institutions.
There is no tracking done of the number of medical errors in Vermont, according to health officials.
"Our hospitals saw 1.6 million patients last year," Grause said. "We believe these incidents to be rare, which is why Vermont's hospitals are among the safest in the country."
This move by the state hospitals comes just days after a new state law took effect creating a reporting system for medical errors to the Vermont Department of Health. The law was passed in 2006 during the legislative debates surrounding Catamount Health and took effect on Jan. 1.
Under the surveillance program, hospitals will report to the state all medical errors to determine the root causes and to get a handle on the total number of cases, according to Jill Olson, the vice-president of policy and operations quality for the hospital association.
"Under this system, the hospitals will report to the Health Department any medical errors and then will work with them to determine if there are any root causes," she explained.
Eighteen months after the system is up and running, the hospitals will then work with the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration to create a public mechanism for the medical error reporting, she added.
This move by Vermont hospitals is part of a national "movement of ownership" by the medical industry to confront the problem of medical errors, according to Diane Pinakiewicz, president of the National Patient Safety Foundation, an independent Massachusetts-based nonprofit group dedicated to increasing patient safety.
More and more hospitals are moving to a voluntary reporting system to track medical errors, she said, in a bid to undue bad practices and increase transparency. She said it is encouraging to see hospitals take the initiative and she applauded the move to a uniform nonpayment policy by Vermont's institutions.
Pinakiewicz said there are some national statistics regarding medical errors — there were about 84 surgeries performed nationally in 2005 on the wrong body part, according to estimates — and that Vermont hospital officials might be surprised once they begin looking at the numbers.
"You're talking about a system that has never done this before," she said of tracking medical errors. "Nationally, they aren't as rare as we like."
The Vermont Medical Society, the state's network of physicians, also praised the move by the hospitals. Communications Director Valerie Lewis said the society worked with the hospitals in developing the new uniform policy and believe it will help boost patient safety in the facilities.
"The Vermont Medical Society supports this effort by the hospitals," she said Friday afternoon. "Having a clear and uniform policy is a realistic way to increase safety when these errors occur."
Gov. James Douglas was on hand for the Friday morning press conference to announce the new hospital policy, which he heralded as another way the state is working to improve the health of Vermonters.
"Vermont is the third state to take this voluntary step, putting us well ahead of others in this area," Douglas said.
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.