Malpractice crisis hinders medical error reporting; state reporting programs surveyed.(Practice Trends)

PORTLAND, ORE. -- Concern about litigation poses a disincentive for states to report statistics on medical errors, Mimi Marchev said at the annual conference of the National Academy for State Health Policy.

Twenty-one states currently have systems for mandatory reporting of medical errors. States vary in their reporting requirements, "which is a problem, because there's no way to aggregate the data" on a nationwide scale, said Ms. Marchev, a senior policy analyst with the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP).

Depending on the state, errors may be reported by hospitals, physicians, or ambulatory care centers. Further, errors may be attributed to individual providers or recorded by type of error. In Ohio, for example, an error may be reported in terms of a procedure rather than an individual physician.

NASHP researchers surveyed error-reporting programs in 19 of the 21 states to see if there was any indication that reporting or disclosure of errors increased exposure to liability.

Programs were also asked how they disclosed data to the public, and how it was protected from the legal process.

The researchers found that "there's some resistance to reporting in light of the malpractice crisis," Ms. Marchev said. However, none of the states cited a link between the reporting system and an increase in malpractice suits.

Administrative and bureaucratic issues often get in the way of reporting of errors; these ...