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Oregon reporting plan to include patient notification

Quality Improvement Monitor, November 17, 2005

Oregon hospitals may soon report and analyze all serious medical errors and notify patients who are harmed, according to the plans of a state panel.

Hospitals could choose to participate in the Oregon Patient Safety Commission's plan, which would require them to report every serious medical error to the commission and tell the patient or family about the event, according to a November 16 report in The Oregonian. The panel released the plan November 15, and the public will be able to comment at a January 10 hearing.

The patient notification could not be used in court, but the patient could still file a malpractice lawsuit, the newspaper reported. All reported information would be confidential and could not be subject to legal discovery or shared with other state agencies.

An estimated 500 to 1,200 Oregon hospital patients die each year from preventable errors, The Oregonian reported.

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