Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is asking lawmakers to clamp down on medical errors at hospitals.
Blumenthal and the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, a patient-advocacy organization testified Monday in support of Senate Bill 248 that would mandate greater disclosure, extend investigative authority and increase civil penalties for mistakes that harm hospital patients.
“The current law is a deadly and disgraceful failure, shielding hospitals and surgical centers from scrutiny and accountability and leaving patients in the dark,” Blumenthal said. “Medical mistakes causing death and serious illness may go unreported, undisclosed and uninvestigated, undermining patient protection.”
The bill would require that the Department of Public Health (DPH) produce annual reports on adverse events in hospitals and surgical centers, including identifying the hospitals and centers where such events occur.
The bill would also require DPH to conduct random audits of health care facilities to determine compliance with the reporting requirements and to examine more closely reported adverse events.
The proposal would also protect employees and others from retaliation for reporting hospital failures to comply with the law.
“Gaping legal loopholes keeping most hospital medical errors secret — including more than 116 that resulted in death between 2004 and present — are unconscionable and unacceptable,” the attorney general testified.
In separate testimony, Blumenthal again called for strict limitations on drug company gifts and other benefits provided to doctors that may improperly influence health care decisions.
Pharmaceutical drug companies spend billions of dollars — some estimates include $23 billion annually, to market prescription drugs. Of that amount, $7 billion is spent on “direct-to-physicians” marketing, Blumenthal said
Blumenthal said that while the pharmaceutical industry may be taking steps toward self-reform, the state cannot rely solely on those efforts, “to break an industry attraction — some might say addiction — to such practices.”
“This proposal recognizes that health care providers and pharmaceutical companies should interact and exchange ideas and experiences — but in the sunshine of transparency and disclosure,” Blumenthal said. “Addicted to profits, pharmaceutical drug companies focus relentlessly on practitioners, seeking enhanced sales and profits.”
Specifically, the legislation would include:
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·        requirements that pharmaceutical and medical device companies adopt a code of conduct — and training and monitoring to ensure compliance with the code;
·        Annually report all authorized payments or other economic benefits provided to health care providers that are individually in excess of $50; and
·        Prohibitions against direct payments or other compensation by pharmaceutical companies to health care providers, unless in exchange for a bona fide service.
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