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New Rules: Coming to a Hospital Near YouBy Monique Coppola
Commonwealth News Service
01:04PM / Friday, May 15, 2009
BOSTON — Transparency is coming to a hospital near you. This week, the Massachusetts Public Health Council approved four new regulations pertaining to consumer access to hospital information.
Hospitals and emergency centers are now required to make reports available to the public regarding a host of issues and events, including some that never should have happened, says Deb Wachenheim, quality coalition manager of Health Care for All in Boston.
"Things that are very serious, like wrong-site surgery, wrong-person surgery, very serious medication errors and very serious falls — a whole list of events now will be publicly reported."
In addition to releasing such reports, hospitals will be financially responsible in the event of serious medical errors — meaning they will no longer be able to bill patients or insurance companies if continued care is needed as a result of an error on the hospital's part. The new regulations will be phased in over the next year and a half. During that time, the Department of Health and Human Services will help hospital administrators with implementation.
Massachusetts hospitals also will be required to establish what are called "patient and family advisory councils." They will give patients and families a "seat at the table" in terms of the work the hospital does, according to James Conway, senior vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
"Councils provide an extraordinary opportunity for patients and families to really work very closely with organizations, allowing them to participate in care and making them a collaborator in what we're doing."
More information is available at www.mass.gov. |
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