President Signs Patient Safety Legislation

The House of Representatives and the Senate recently passed, and President
Bush signed into law, AACC-endorsed legislation, S.544, the "Patient Safety
and Quality Improvement Act," adopting a number of safeguards to reduce
medical errors. Initially drafted by Senator James Jeffords (I-VT), the bill
responds to the 1999 Institute of Medicine Report that stated as many as
98,000 Americans die annually due to preventable medical mistakes.

S.544 will:
# Create a voluntary reporting network for medical errors;
# Certify 'patient safety organizations' to gather and analyze medical
errors data and make recommendations for improvement;
# Provide legal protections for providers so that shared information cannot
be used against them in civil, criminal or administrative actions unless
discovered via a different route; and
# Give the HHS Secretary authority to create a network of databases of
non-identifiable patient safety information to define trends pertaining to
patient safety and health care quality and disseminate recommendations for
improved care.


In addition, the statute requires the HHS Secretary to develop voluntary
national standards for integrating health care information technology
systems. The measure does not, as do other competing patient safety bills,
make grants available to hospitals and other health care providers so that
they can acquire or implement the information technologies needed to reduce
medical errors. This provision, however, may be addressed in separate health
information technology (HIT) legislation currently under review by Congress.

For clinical laboratories, this law means they will be able to share
information about medical errors with patient safety organizations (PSOs)
which will, in turn, identify and disseminate information regarding common
trends and problems and provide guidance on how to fix these problems --
resulting in the delivery of better, more efficient patient care.

If you would like a copy of the final bill, please go the congressional Web
site, THOMAS, at http://rs9.loc.gov/home/thomas.html.

Relative to patient safety, AACC is sponsoring an audioconference, "Focus on
Patient Safety: Effective Tools for Improving Lab Processes," on September
21, 2005. For details on this program, please visit the AACC Web site at
http://www.aacc.org/meetings/patient_safety/default.stm.


Four Common Errors Associated With Laboratory Testing

* Wrong test ordered
* Test incorrectly interpreted
* Abnormal results not reported promptly
* Improper specimen collection