Mr. Blumenthal was reacting to an investigative article in Sunday’s Courant finding that in recent years hospitals have not reported more than 50 patient fatalities, more than a dozen sexual assaults and hundreds of serious falls.
Although the legislature in 2002 ordered hospitals to report adverse events that killed or seriously injured patients, in 2004 it narrowed the types of reportable events and gave hospitals confidentiality unless cases were formally investigated.
A spokesperson for the Connecticut Hospital Association said that since the 2004 change in the law, hospitals have reduced the number of pressure ulcers and falls with injury, some of the most frequently reported adverse events.
Nationwide, about half the states have mandatory adverse event reporting systems but nearly all, like Connecticut, keep most submissions secret from patients.
One exception is Minnesota, which has issued lengthy reports on adverse events at each hospital in the state.
Read the Hartford Courant’s report on adverse events.
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