Text: HF02294 Text: HF02296 Text: HF02200 - HF02299 Text: HF Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
PAG LIN
1 1 Section 1. PATIENT SAFETY INITIATIVE – MEDICAL ERRORS.
1 2 1. If federal funding is received, the Iowa department of
1 3 public health shall establish an initiative to address patient
1 4 safety through the identification of medical errors.
1 5 2. The focus of the initiative shall be the development of
1 6 a medical error reporting system that motivates health care
1 7 providers to report medical errors and that maintains
1 8 information reported in a systematic way that is useful to
1 9 health care providers. The reporting system should provide
1 10 that data collected is used to identify and address the
1 11 underlying systemic causes of medical errors, detect system
1 12 weaknesses, and prevent the occurrence of future errors.
1 13 3. The initiative shall emphasize the use of reported
1 14 medical errors not as a basis for blame and liability, but as
1 15 a basis for system improvement and prevention of future
1 16 errors. The system should encourage health care providers to
1 17 equate the reporting of medical errors with the protection of
1 18 patient safety through prevention of avoidable error, rather
1 19 than encourage nonreporting as a means of avoiding legal
1 20 liability. The initiative may utilize exclusive enterprise
1 21 liability, no-fault compensation, no-fault liability, or
1 22 liability limitations to protect health care providers who
1 23 report medical errors that result only in a no-harm event or a
1 24 near miss as means of eliminating the adversarial quality of
1 25 the current liability system. The initiative shall not apply
1 26 to medical errors that involve actions or omissions that
1 27 constitute negligence, recklessness, or intentional
1 28 misconduct.
1 29 4. For the purpose of this Act:
1 30 a. "Medical error" means a failure of a planned action to
1 31 be completed as intended or the use of a wrong action to
1 32 achieve an aim. "Medical error" may include a problem in
1 33 practice, products, procedures, or systems.
1 34 b. "Near miss" means an event in which the unwanted
1 35 consequences were prevented through recovery by identification
2 1 and correction of the failure.
2 2 c. "No-harm event" means an event that has occurred but
2 3 resulted in no actual harm although the potential for harm may
2 4 be present.
2 5 EXPLANATION
2 6 This bill directs the Iowa department of public health to
2 7 establish an initiative to address patient safety through the
2 8 identification of medical errors if federal funding is
2 9 received. The focus of the initiative is the development of a
2 10 medical error reporting system that motivates health care
2 11 providers to report medical errors and that maintains
2 12 information reported in a systematic way that is useful to
2 13 health care providers. The reporting system should provide
2 14 that data collected is used to identify and address the
2 15 underlying systemic causes of medical errors, detect system
2 16 weaknesses, and prevent the occurrence of future errors. The
2 17 emphasis of the initiative is the use of reported medical
2 18 errors not as a basis for blame and liability, but as a basis
2 19 for system improvement and prevention of future errors. The
2 20 bill provides that the initiative may utilize exclusive
2 21 enterprise liability, no-fault compensation, no-fault
2 22 liability, or liability limitations to protect health care
2 23 providers who report medical errors that result in a no-harm
2 24 event or a near miss as means of eliminating the adversarial
2 25 quality of the current liability system. The initiative is
2 26 not to apply to medical errors that involve actions or
2 27 omissions that constitute negligence, recklessness, or
2 28 intentional misconduct.
2 29 The bill defines "medical error", "near miss", and "no-harm
2 30 event".
2 31 LSB 6285HH 79
2 32 pf/cls/14
Text: HF02294 Text: HF02296 Text: HF02200 - HF02299 Text: HF Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
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