CA county to tighten rules on reporting medical errors
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
July 28, 2005
The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has proposed an ordinance to tighten the rules on reporting medical errors at the San Mateo County Hospital. The ordinance would define what errors must be reported and specifically prohibits retaliations based on those reports, according to an article in the San Francisco Examiner.Reports would be made within 24 hours of an adverse event in the hospital. The proposal comes after a patient at San Mateo patient died after he was inadvertently given 10 times the amount of chemotherapy medicine prescribed.
Reportable events were defined as "unintended situation that arises from an error in medical diagnosis, procedure, equipment, product, medication, or other patient care that results in death or serious injury," according to The Examiner.
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