Connecticut releases error report amid flurry of doubts

A hospital association official says raw numbers from the initial reports create unfair concerns about the quality of care.

By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. July 14, 2003.

Connecticut's new Adverse Event Reporting System is supposed to help improve health care in the state's hospitals, but some critics fear it may have the opposite effect.

Connecticut State Medical Society Director of Government Relations Ken Ferrucci said the law has "muddy language" which raises concern that information brought up at peer review would not be protected and that the program may actually discourage reporting of adverse events.

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Since it's the Legislature's goal to eventually include individual physicians in the reporting system, he said it's in the doctors' best interest to fix problems with the program.

As of Oct. 1, 2002, hospitals are required to report "adverse events" such as patient death, injury or abuse to the Connecticut Dept. of Public Health. Reported information is available six months after filing, and the first two months of reports were recently published in the media.

The initial reports published in the Hartford Courant, showed that 94 adverse events were reported at the state's 31 hospitals. One hospital reported 15 events, another reported only one.

"In the current form, because of the nonstandardization of the reporting, I don't think you can draw any conclusion from the data," said CSMS Director of Program Michele Norbeck, adding that hospitals have already been examining adverse events internally for years.

18 states have mandatory error-reporting systems; 5 more have voluntary programs.

Ken Roberts, director of communications for the Connecticut Hospital Assn., said the program and media reports have "created an aura of doubt around hospitals, which is unfair."

Roberts, however, said he had hopes that the program can eventually be used to spot trends among state hospitals that can lead to fixing process or equipment problems.

National Conference of State Legislatures Program Manager Kala Ladenheim said 17 states have similar mandatory reporting systems and five more have voluntary programs.

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Connecticut releases error report amid flurry of doubts

A hospital association official says raw numbers from the initial reports create unfair concerns about the quality of care.