Nearly 100 consumers, advocates, medical experts, healthcare professionals and legislators gathered at the State House on Tuesday morning to testify before the Joint Committee on Public Health on bills relating to patient safety, malpractice and medical errors prevention and reporting.
During the three hour hearing, many of those in attendance testified in support of the three priority bills of HCFA’s Consumer Health Quality Council. HCFA’s Executive Director, Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, introduced the Consumer Council’s three-person panel. The consumers told compelling personal stories as part of their testimony. Virginia Harvey testified in support of H. 2138 and S. 878 “An Act to Improve the Delivery of Health Care,” filed by Representative Provost and Senator Moore, which would require hospitals to use checklists to prevent serious errors that can lead to serious injury and possibly death. Checklists promote teamwork and collaboration among surgical teams and better surgical outcomes. The point was made that many other professions use them including construction companies and accountants, not to mention pilots. Ms. Harvey, who had to have her leg amputated because of an infection that she got during ankle surgery, said she hopes this gives patients a better chance than she had. The use of one particular checklist, a surgical checklist, has been found to result in approximately a 36% reduction in serious complications (including surgical site infections) and deaths.
Lucilia Prates testified on the importance of H. 2139, “An Act to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections,” filed by Representative Provost. This legislation would require hospitals to screen incoming high-risk patients for MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) – a bacterium that can be easily spread from person-to-person and cause infections among patients. Ms. Prates’ father died from complications due to a hospital acquired infection which was preventable. Nearly 100,000 Americans die from a hospital-acquired infection each year and 19,000 of those are MRSA. Five other states have similar laws in place.
Consumer Council President Ken Farbstein testified in support of S. 909/H. 2084, “An Act to Reduce Medication Errors,” which was filed by Representative Khan and Senator Tucker. These bills would establish an expert panel to study medication errors in Massachusetts and develop a prioritized list of concrete recommendations and best practices for how the Commonwealth can reduce the prevalence of medication errors. Nineteen years ago, Mr. Farbstein’s wife was given the wrong medication for a number of hours while she was in labor. Their newborn son spent 3 weeks in the NICU. He and his family did not report the error then but he’s sharing their story now to encourage others to do the same. He testified that more oversight and reporting mechanisms are needed.
A number of legislators testified in support of the more than thirty bills being heard. Rep. Provost testified in support of the two bills she filed and that are mentioned above- MRSA screening and using checklists. Of the first she mentioned that as a former trial lawyer, she only knew of two ways to handle the problem: 1) legislative oversight and regulation or 2) the inefficiencies of the malpractice system. She urged the legislature to take the initiative to regulate versus leaving the problem to the more expensive option. Rep. Provost also urged her colleagues to support the checklist bill. She cited figures from the study on surgical checklists that found their use in all operating rooms in the U.S. could save $15-25 billion per year. Senator Tucker also testified in support of the quality bills, saying “this is exactly the right time” to do this in the Commonwealth.
-Jessica Hamilton
