Patient Safety & Health Care Quality Leaders Support Health Court Pilot Projects July 5, 2006 Common Good recently announced that six leaders in patient safety and health care quality are calling for pilot projects for special health courts. The idea of special health courts, being championed by Common Good, has generated bipartisan support as a way of restoring reliability to medical justice. Last month, six of the nation's leading academic hospital centers and health systems also voiced their support for health court pilot projects.
The six leaders – and their statements of support – are:
· Dennis S. O'Leary, MD – President, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations:
“Our collective ability to forge real improvements in patient care requires timely creation of injury compensation systems – like special health care courts – that are patient-centered and focused on safety. The legislation introduced by Senators Enzi and Baucus is a major step forward in this regard.”
· John Rother – Director of Policy and Strategy, AARP:
"AARP supports the idea of testing alternative compensation systems for those who have suffered injury in our healthcare system. We think faster and fairer patient compensation is possible, and we want a system focused on safety and quality improvement rather than on finding blame."
· Margaret E. O'Kane – President, National Committee for Quality Assurance:
“America’s legal system today impedes efforts to enhance patient safety. As a nation, we should experiment with new approaches to resolving medical injury disputes – such as health court pilot projects – that would better compensate patients, improve efficiencies, and promote patient safety. The proposal advanced by Senators Enzi and Baucus represents a major step in the right direction.”
· Susan E. Sheridan, MIM, MBA – Co-Founder and President, Consumers Advancing Patient Safety:
“Medical errors resulted in the death of my husband and a serious injury to my son. I firmly believe that reforming the legal system is a crucial part of efforts to improve patient safety in American health care. Pilot projects to explore new approaches in the legal system – as the bill introduced by Senators Enzi and Baucus would do – will help greatly.”
· Martin J. Hatlie, Esq. – President, Partnership for Patient Safety:
"After a medical error, the malpractice system funnels patients and their providers into a brutal, “win at all costs” fight about money. Learning from mistakes is sacrificed to courtroom dramatics, and the emotional healing that both patients and providers need is impossible to reach. Well-designed health courts could de-escalate the fight and provide fairer results to both patients and health care providers. Senators Enzi and Baucus are to be commended for their bipartisan leadership in exploring and evaluating the merits of health courts.”
· David B. Kendall – Senior Fellow for Health Policy, Progressive Policy Institute:
“For too long, the debate over medical malpractice reform has been deadlocked over caps on non-economic damages. The bill introduced by Senators Enzi and Baucus shifts the debate to the most important issues: speeding compensation to injured patients, reducing legal costs, and improving patient safety. Their proposal for health court pilot projects would be a major step forward especially if it were combined with legislation by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama that would prevent juries from using doctors' apologies against them in court.”
“The unreliability of medical justice today has infected health care with a debilitating distrust,” said Philip K. Howard, Chair of Common Good. “These consumer and patient safety leaders understand that a reliable system of justice is needed to align incentives towards patient safety and avoiding wasteful practices.”
Last month, six hospitals and academic medical centers announced their strong interest in serving as pilot projects for special health courts. They are: Duke University School of Medicine and Health System (Durham, NC); Emory Healthcare (Atlanta, GA); Jackson Health System/University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (Miami, FL); Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore, MD); New York-Presbyterian. The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell. (New York, NY); and Yale-New Haven Hospital/Yale Medical Group (New Haven, CT). Read more about the hospitals' support here.
Special health courts would be devoted exclusively to addressing health care issues. The hallmark of special health courts would be full-time judges, trained in health care issues. These judges would define and interpret standards of care in malpractice cases, relying on neutral experts paid by the court and setting precedent from one case to another. Special health courts would ensure that patients injured by mistakes would be reliably compensated, without having to pay one third or more to lawyers. Common Good is currently leading the effort to develop models for special health courts in partnership with The Harvard School of Public Health, with funding from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read more about the health court concept here.
Legislation to implement health court pilot projects has been introduced at the fedearl and state levels. Notably, a bill in the U.S. Senate, Senators Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Max Baucus (D-MT) have introduced a bill to authorize and fund pilot health courts, and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee recently held a hearing on the bill. Read more about the Senate hearing here. Find out about other health court legislation here.
Read Common Good's press release - "Leaders in Patient Safety and Health Care Quality Call for Pilot Projects for Special Health Courts" (PDF format).
Who Else Supports Health Courts?
Click here to see a list of individuals who support health courts. Click here for a list of organizations supporting health courts.
To find out how you can help support and promote health courts click here.
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