N.J. bill would require details on hospital errors

TRENTON - New Jersey hospitals might soon be required to make public more detailed information on medical errors.

A bill moving through the legislature requires the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services to publish how often certain errors occur at each hospital.

Health-care facilities already report preventable medical mistakes to the state and federal governments. But the state publishes only the number of errors statewide, not the data for individual hospitals, as the bill would require.

The measure also would bar hospitals and doctors from charging insurers or patients for procedures where mistakes were made.

Jeanne Otersen, public-policy director for Health Professionals and Allied Employees, a New Jersey health-care-workers union, said the bill would change the medical culture.

"I think we've erred on the side of secrecy at the expense of our patients' right to know," she said.

However, the New Jersey Hospital Association, a trade group, hasn't warmed to the measure.

Jessica Cohen, the group's policy director, said a medical mistake wasn't always the hospital's fault. Hospitals, she said, do not normally charge for egregious errors, such as amputating the wrong limb.

Several insurers already refuse payment for certain mistakes, according to AARP New Jersey, which has been pressing for more detailed disclosure.

But under current state law, patients could theoretically be billed for the errors, said Doug Johnston, advocacy manager for AARP New Jersey. Asked whether this has ever happened, Johnston said he had heard of some isolated occurrences.

New Jersey's Patient Safety Act of 2004 requires the Health Department to report hospitals' preventable errors. Two reports have been released, covering most of 2005 and all of 2006.

There were 826 mistakes reported in that time. In 2006, nearly 40 percent of the errors were patient falls, and half of all mistakes that year were attributed to "communication among staff."

New Jersey would not be the first to disclose hospital-specific errors. Minnesota, for example, tracks 28 categories of mistakes, publishing the data for each facility, said Patricia Kelmar, associate state director for AARP New Jersey.

"These are process errors," said Kelmar. "These aren't things that can't get prevented."