What do Florida and NY require of risk managers?
Reporting systems are mandatory
In Florida, current state law requires licensed health care facilities to create a reporting system for any adverse incidents.1 The law requires reporting all incidents to the hospital's risk manager within three days. According to the law, the reports must contain the following information:
1. The patient's name, locating information, admission diagnosis, admission date, age, and sex.
2. A clear and concise description of the incident, including time, date, and exact location.
3. Whether or not a physician was called and if so, a brief statement of that physician's recommendations about medical treatment, if any.
4. A list of all people then known to be involved directly in the incident, including witnesses, along with locating information for each.
5. The name, signature, and position of the person completing the report, along with the date and time that the report was completed.2
If incidents result in the death of a patient, severe brain or spinal damage to a patient, or if a surgical procedure is performed on the wrong patient, the risk manager must file an incident report with the state of Florida within 15 days of its occurrence.3
Florida law also requires that a hospital risk manager report any patient's death to the medical examiner immediately.
New York law currently requires reporting two types of incidents: Interruption of services and patient-related events must be reported to the state, says Joe Conte, MPA, director of risk management for Long Island (NY) Jewish Medical Center and president of the New York Society for Healthcare Risk Management in New York City.
For patient incidents, Conte says current state laws require the hospital to use an algorithm. The algorithm looks at the type of the event and the resulting harm to the patient to determine whether the incident must be reported.
"It's a peer review standard applied to treatment, which makes it a trackable or a reportable incident," he says. "Trackable incidents are less serious."
References
1. Florida Statutes Annotated. Ch. 59A-10.005.
2. Florida Statutes Annotated. Ch. 59A-10.006.
3. Florida Statutes Annotated. Ch 59A-10.0065. *
Florida threatens criminal liabilities
In response to several widely reported adverse incidents in Florida hospitals last year, a Florida legislator tried to add criminal penalties to the state's risk management laws. The bill was defeated, but Florida risk managers are expecting it to surface again this year. The following is a portion of Florida Senate Bill 484, which would have imposed the penalties:
"Any person who has direct knowledge of the occurrence of an adverse or untoward incident, as defined in s. 395.017 must report the incident to the risk manager of the licensed facility in which it occurred within 12 hours after acquiring such knowledge. Any person who does not comply with this requirement may be prosecuted as an accessory to intentional battery. The risk manager must verify that the patient or his family were informed of the incident within 24 hours after it occurred. The license of a risk manager who does not comply with this requirement may be suspended for a period of not less than 30 days nor more than one year. The license of a risk manager who is shown to have a general pattern of noncompliance may be suspended for a period of not less than one year." *
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content