Lawmakers will introduce legislation to upgrade Washington's medical-error reporting program in January in response to a report that showed problems with the current system, according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report.
The bill would include the imposition of a fee on medical facilities to fund an effective reporting program, according to the report. The fee would contribute to analysis of medical-error reports that would let hospitals statewide learn from each other's errors.
Washington is currently one of 27 states that require hospitals to report medical errors, but only a fraction of last year's required reports were submitted to the state, according to a study by a major Utah hospital chain. In 2009 only 198 reports were submitted out of a required 2,200.
Read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer report on Washington's medical-error reporting system.
Read more on reporting:
-CMS Delays Reporting on Hospital-Acquired Infections
-ONC Posts FAQs to Answer Healthcare Providers' Most Asked Questions About Meaningful Use
The bill would include the imposition of a fee on medical facilities to fund an effective reporting program, according to the report. The fee would contribute to analysis of medical-error reports that would let hospitals statewide learn from each other's errors.
Washington is currently one of 27 states that require hospitals to report medical errors, but only a fraction of last year's required reports were submitted to the state, according to a study by a major Utah hospital chain. In 2009 only 198 reports were submitted out of a required 2,200.
Read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer report on Washington's medical-error reporting system.
Read more on reporting:
-CMS Delays Reporting on Hospital-Acquired Infections
-ONC Posts FAQs to Answer Healthcare Providers' Most Asked Questions About Meaningful Use