Connecticut Attorney General's Office

Press Release

Attorney General To Seek Greater Disclosure Of Hospital Errors, More Investigations And Civil Penalties

November 16, 2009

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced today he will seek legislation requiring greater disclosure of medical mistakes at hospitals, as well as providing regulators beefed up investigative resources and new authority to impose civil penalties.

Joining Blumenthal in his call for a major strengthening of the state hospital medical mistakes reporting law was Connecticut Center for Patient Safety Executive Director Jean Rexford.

Blumenthal and Rexford are seeking overhaul of the law in the wake of a media report exposing hospitals' failure to disclose and the state's failure to investigate and punish most serious medical mistakes or improprieties, including many that resulted in death.

Blumenthal said, "This law is a deadly and disgraceful failure, shielding hospitals and medical professionals from scrutiny and accountability and leaving patients in the dark," Blumenthal said. "Medical mistakes causing death and serious illness usually go unreported, undisclosed and uninvestigated, undermining patient protection. A law intended to expose and address medical incompetence instead abets cover-up and concealment. Gaping loopholes keeping most hospital medical errors secret -- including more than 50 that resulted in death -- are unconscionable and unacceptable.

"Using sunlight as the best disinfectant, we prescribe public disclosure more fully and promptly of hospital medical errors -- information consumers need and deserve. We will seek new authority and additional resources - more power and personnel -- for the state Medical Examining Board and Department of Public Health (DPH), enabling them to aggressively investigate medical mistakes at hospitals and punish with powerful civil penalties. Incredibly, under current law, there is no authority to impose mandatory civil penalties on hospitals.

"We will fight to assure greater disclosure of and accountability for medical errors at hospitals, protecting patients and improving quality of care.

"Higher hospital transparency and medical mistake disclosure, which I have urged in the past, will be part of a package of proposals overhauling and reforming the present system of scrutiny, standard setting and enforcement.

"The package will include:

• Access and availability of DPH and Medical Examining Board records;

• More frequent and effective investigations of medical error complaints;

• Civil penalties for proven hospital violations of medical care standards."

Rexford said, "As we walk toward health care reform at the state and national level -- we must stop and ask -- access to what? We want to assure that quality of care is a primary focus. We know that transparency and accountability are key components in providing quality care."