Bill would increase CA hospital inspections
Accreditation Connection, January 20, 2006
A California lawmaker plans to introduce legislation this week that would increase state hospital inspections, set a quicker timeframe for investigations, and post the findings online, the Mercury News reported.
State senator Elaine Alquist of San Jose said patients and their families should have easy access to information about hospital safety records. Alquist said she decided that state oversight over hospitals should be increased after learning that human errors led to four deaths in a year at two Kaiser Permanente hospitals in San Jose and Santa Clara, the paper reported.
The bill would require state authorities to inspect hospitals annually; currently, inspections occur once every three years, or more often in response to complaints. The bill also would mandate reporting of medical errors within 48 hours, and it would require state inspectors to investigate each incident and report their findings within 45 days. Currently, there is no mandated timeframe for investigations.
Another new requirement would result in investigators' findings being posted on the Internet. Currently, the reports are available only in paper files that are kept at regional offices of the state health department.
Click here to read the story.
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