Rep. TOM CAMPBELL (R-Roy)
2nd LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Olympia office: 334 John L. O'Brien Building
PO Box 40600 Olympia, WA 98504-0600
Office: (360) 786-7912

For immediate release: Oct 31, 2007

New legislative proposal will require hospitals to report errors

Olympia -- After an Attorney General opinion that a 2006 law unintentionally removed a provision requiring hospitals to report errors to the public, Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Roy) quickly drafted new legislation to require such reporting when the Legislature convenes in January.

In 2000, Campbell had introduced legislation (House Bill 1711) that required hospitals to report errors, including operating on the wrong body parts and leaving a variety of implements inside the patient after surgery, to the state Department of Health. The DOH routinely reported the errors for public scrutiny over the years.

But, the Washington Hospital Association thought they found a ‘loop-hole’ in 2006 legislation requiring hospitals to report hospital-acquired infections, another bill introduced by Campbell (HB1015). The association then instructed hospitals to stop disclosing such errors to the Dept. of Health.

An ‘overwhelming’ public response in newspapers and media across the state to the hospital association decision to quit reporting quickly prompted the association to reverse its position, leading The Dept. of Health to request the AG opinion for clarification.

Campbell said his new bill will “emphatically enforce the requirement of hospitals to report errors in medical treatment for the public record.”

The bill he will offer -- when session convenes in about 11 weeks -- will change the law to require the release of errors logged by individual hospitals and other facilities covered under the law, as well as relevant descriptive information. The hospital association has indicated it will now support the measure.

Over the past year, Washington state hospitals had reported 21 occurrences of surgery on the wrong body part, and 34 instances of leaving objects inside patients after surgery. Hospitals also reported eight cases of patients receiving the wrong surgical procedure and six cases of death or disability from medication errors.

“It’s imperative that all citizens have access to hospital error records so they can make a reasonable determination about which hospital facility they would prefer when they need surgery,” Campbell said. “The public’s right to know far outweighs hospital’s desire to keep secret costly errors.”

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Contact: Rep. Tom Campbell at (360) 786-7912 or campbell.tom@leg.wa.gov