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Secretary Tommy Thompson's Remarks To The National Committee for Quality AssuranceThank you, Susan Dentzer, for that kind introduction. I would also like to thank Margaret O'Kane and the National Committee for Quality Assurance for bringing resources and attention to the critical area of patient safety. Your work to improve and measure quality in managed care organizations, PPOs, physician organizations, and other institutions has been significant and inspiring. Because we obviously face a heightened risk of terrorism this week, I want to assure everyone that, thanks to the work we have done over the past couple of years, we are better prepared to prevent and respond to a bioterror attack than we've ever been in our history. We have increased both human and food surveillance for possible biological attacks. Through the Food and Drug Administration, we are taking aggressive steps to increase examination of imported food and surveillance of the domestic food industry. We have alerted state and local health departments, hospitals, and health care providers to report any unusual diseases or disease patterns. And we are providing $1.4 billion to state governments to help them continue preparations against terrorism and other health emergencies. While the Administration has been working to make the world a safer place, and to make America safe from bioterrorism, we've also been working to make Americans safer when they receive health care services. And that's why we're all here tonight, to celebrate the advance of patient safety. I'd like to congratulate your honorees for their work on patient safety. Congratulations, Harvey Picker, Dr. Jack Wennberg, my friends Nancy Johnson and John Breaux, and especially my good friend Paul O'Neill. I'd also like to tell you what we in the Administration are doing this year to advance patient safety. We're launching initiatives, drafting rules, supporting legislation-so many things that I'll need to cover each one briefly. Through the Food and Drug Administration, we are proposing two new rules to prevent errors with medication. The first of these proposals will require bar coding on almost all pharmaceuticals and blood products. This rule would help reduce the number of medication errors by allowing health care professionals to use bar code scanning equipment to verify that the right drug in the right dose is given to the right patient at the right time. It would also require the use of machine-readable information on blood and blood component container labels to help prevent errors in the use of blood products. These bar codes would be part of a quality control system, along with bar code scanners and computerized databases. The proposed rule would apply to manufacturers, re-packers, re-labelers, and private label distributors of prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs used in the hospital. A patient would have his or her drug regimen information entered into a computerized database. The label of each drug would have a bar code, a code that would provide unique identifying information about the drug that is to be dispensed to the patient, to help guard against conflicting treatments or other errors. Medication errors are a serious public health problem, but they are also preventable. Using this bar code technology, we can prevent such errors as: administering the wrong dose of a drug, administering a drug that causes a known allergic reaction in the patient, administering the wrong drug to a patient, or administering the right drug at the wrong time. The second proposed rule would make significant improvements to the safety reporting requirements for medicines. FDA has long collected and used information on adverse events to identify ways that drugs can be used more safely, and occasionally remove products from the market. But we can do better - we can get more useful and accurate information faster and more efficiently with the new regulation. Under the proposed rule, companies would be required to submit all reports they receive of actual and potential medication errors occurring in the United States to the FDA within 15 days. By expediting FDA's review and response to medication errors, the quick and complete reporting of these facts will improve patient safety and the ability of doctors to prescribe drugs in the best interest of their patients. Companies would be required to submit all reports they receive of actual and potential medication errors occurring in the United States to the FDA within 15 days. By expediting FDA's review and response to medication errors, the quick and complete reporting of these facts will improve patient safety and the ability of doctors to prescribe drugs in the best interest of their patients. But those new regulations are not the only good news about patient safety. Our Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is also launching new tool to enhance patient safety. These Patient Safety Indicators will help hospitals to quickly detect potential medical errors, so we can develop strategies to improve safety. The web-based tool uses secondary diagnostic codes to detect 26 types of adverse events. And that's something we can all look forward to. One problem that we encounter in trying to improve patient safety is that doctors are often reluctant to discuss medical errors frankly for fear of lawsuits. That's why we also strongly support Patient Safety Organization legislation. By ensuring that information is kept confidential, this legislation encourages doctors, hospitals, and other experts to work together to improve quality. Under our proposal, Patient Safety Organizations would be able to examine procedures and outcomes at all hospitals and nursing homes and make suggestions for improvements. Because they will receive information from more than one hospital and about more than one doctor, Patient Safety Organizations will be able to detect patterns of good and bad practices that might not otherwise be noticeable on a single provider basis. They will be able to make solid recommendations to local providers about improving their procedures. Earlier this month, by a broad and bipartisan margin, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 663, the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act. This bill would provide peer review protection of information reported to patient safety organizations for the purposes of quality improvement and patient safety. It would also establish a national database to analyze health care errors. We look forward to continuing to work with Members of Congress to secure enactment of such important patient safety legislation. Another way to improve health care quality is to make sure people have choices regarding their health care, and good, objective information about each of those choices. One group of people that often lacks such information is Medicare recipients, so we've worked to change that. Last spring, we announced a six-state pilot of the Nursing Home Quality Initiative, and later in the year we launched the nationwide program. The feedback so far has been very positive. 77% of nursing homes in the six pilot states have told us they have made quality improvements and that the Initiative was a factor in their decision. Next month, we will launch Phase I of a similar Home Health Quality Initiative. Through our partnerships with quality improvement organizations, we will also offer quality assistance to every provider that wants to improve. And, we'll work to improve our knowledge about how to measure and improve the quality of care. Our Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality worked with measurement experts and clinicians to recommend 11 quality measures, which were approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. After nursing homes and home care, the third stop for our quality train will be hospitals. Last year, we endorsed the launch of a voluntary Hospital Quality Initiative. And later this year we plan to launch a full hospital program along the lines of the home care program. Right now, we are soliciting input from the industry to refine the survey instrument that we are now pilot testing. We're excited about all three of these programs. They're three more ways we can promote patient safety and quality in health care. My friends, Americans have made many great discoveries over the years, and the discoveries that will endure the longest have expanded our understanding of nutrition and exercise, birth and aging, and how to prevent, treat, and cure disease, disability, and suffering. We have better knowledge and technology at our disposal than ever before. We have much more to discover, and at the same time we also have the opportunity to put our recent discoveries into practice - to make sure America's federal and state health programs, and the entire medical industry, reflect the best work of our researchers and the kindest impulses of our hearts. I thank all of you for everything you've done to make America a safer, healthier, and happier place to live. Thank you. Last Revised: April 8, 2003 |
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