Eachus calls for improving doctor training to reduce medical errors, USA

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 06 Mar 2005 - 14:00 PDT

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Healthcare Excellence and Accountability Response Team to examine standards on March 17 -

State Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said the House Democratic HEART Health Care Committee he co-chairs will hold a hearing on enhancing training standards for doctors to help protect patients and lower medical malpractice insurance costs by reducing medical errors.

"There are minimum standards on how truck drivers and hairdressers do their jobs, but no real minimum standards on how our doctors should perform their jobs when treating patients with specific medical needs," Eachus said. "We've got some of the world's greatest medical schools in our state, and I think it's time we used those schools and made sure that every doctor in the Commonwealth is getting the same training, the same standards and the same dedication to patient safety.

"The implementation of this type of training would reduce costs, improve safety, and - because all doctors would be held to the same rules - doctors would be protected from frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits when they follow those rules."

Eachus said that using state-supported medical schools to create "Clinical Process Improvement Measures" - using clearly outlined standards - will achieve those goals. The schools themselves would create the measures and the state would provide the additional funding required.

Taking part in the upcoming HEART hearing is Robert Crawford of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Health Policy and Administration. Crawford is an expert in quality management in health-care organizations and has developed proposals dealing with clinical process improvement measures currently being discussed in other states.

Also participating in the hearing will be Dr. David Ballard, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Baylor Healthcare System in Texas and the executive director of the Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement.

Eachus noted that Baylor Healthcare System is the acknowledged national innovator in creating these clinical process improvement measures.

"Baylor is changing all the rules, and for the better," Eachus said. "They have shown that clinical process improvements can work and do work. I'm very pleased that they are willing to come up and help us get this program on the move. Their participation in the process will allow Pennsylvania to 'skip a step' and work toward implementing clinical process improvement measures faster and at less cost to the state.

"These are two unmatched experts in clinical process improvements - the kind of experts who usually testify before U.S. Senate panels, not state House panels - and I am confident this hearing will be an enormous first step for us here in the Commonwealth. Our system isn't broken, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop trying to improve it."

The hearing will be held in Philadelphia on March 17.

http://www.pahouse.com/Eachus

MEDIA CONTACT: Ben Turner
House Democratic Communications Office
Phone: 717-787-7895
Fax: 717-783-6839
Email: bturner@pahouse.net