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2005 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Education and Health
Subcommittee Health Care

Bolling, Saslaw, Martin, Newman, Whipple

Clerk: Jocelyn Lance
Staff: Norma Szakal,Brenda Edwards
Date of Meeting: February 1, 2005
Time and Place: 8:30 a.m., 3 West Conference Rm, General Assembly Building

S.B. 1208 Patient safety; establishment of toll-free hotline for reports, & protection of health records.

Patron: Mims

Patient protections; safety.  Requires the Department of Health (i) to establish a confidential toll-free hotline for reports on patient safety and quality of patient care in hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities that may be made anonymously or in the name of any health care provider or consumer; (ii) respond to complaints and provide a concise description of any action taken pursuant to the complaint; and (iii) prohibits retaliation against complainants.

The bill also requires facilities to develop, implement, and assure compliance with a patient safety plan and to submit the patient safety plan to the Department of Health prior to the date of license renewal. All facilities and all physicians are required to report serious medical errors to the patient who was the subject of the error and to the Board of Medicine.  The facilities must require medical error reports from physicians with practice privileges, contracts with or employed by the facilities, which must be, in turn, reported to the Board of Health.  The Board of Health must require that the reports of serious medical errors received by hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities be submitted to the patient-level database.

The bill also prohibits alteration, destruction or discarding of an individual's health record in an effort to conceal any serious medical error. Any physician of medicine, osteopathy, or podiatry found liable in three or more medical malpractice suits in a three-year period will be investigated to determine whether he is violating the regulatory law and should be the subject of a license revocation proceeding. The Director of the Department of Health Professions is authorized to provide a summary of any action taken as a result of a complaint to the complainant.

A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 32.1-125.4, 32.1-125.5, 32.1-127, 32.1-127.1:03, 54.1-111, 54.1-2400.2, and 54.1-2909 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 54.1-2909.1, relating to patient safety.

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