H.R. 663, the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act, was recently passed by the House and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. H.R. 663 would permit HHS to certify "patient safety organizations" to receive reports of health care errors voluntarily submitted by providers. Any "patient safety work product" reported by a provider would be protected from disclosure in civil or administrative proceedings, or under the Freedom of Information Act. Information submitted by providers would be used to create a National Patient Safety Database. A similar measure is being considered in Texas (HB 1614), although the Texas measure would mandate reporting of certain types of errors (including wrong site surgery, medication errors that cause serious harm, and foreign objects being left in surgical patients) to the Texas Department of Health. An aggregate summary of reported events, without identifying any patient or provider, would be made available to the public. HB 1614 currently is pending in the House Committee on Public Health.

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