Government
AMA lobbies for patient safety legislation
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 12, 2004
The American Medical Association is pushing lawmakers to pass patient safety legislation that would create an error reporting system similar to the one used in the aviation industry. The system would allow accidents to be reported quickly and confidentially so that the information could be used to help avoid the same mistakes later.
The House passed the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act last year. A Senate committee has passed the legislation, but the full Senate has yet to vote. The AMA ran an advertisement last month in National Journal, Roll Call and Congress Daily titled "Time is Running Out," which urges the Senate to adopt the measure.
"Our current health care system promotes a culture of shame and blame. We need the Senate to act now for our patients' safety," said Donald J. Palmisano, MD, the AMA immediate past president, in announcing the ad campaign. "Physicians, nurses and other health care professionals can't change the culture alone."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/07/12/gvbf0712.htm.
