GOVERNOR PATERSON AND LEGISLATIVE LEADERS ANNOUNCE AGREEMENT ON LANDMARK LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY

Bill Offers Greater Transparency for Patients and Tougher Discipline for Physicians

Will Enhance Infection Control Requirements and Facilitate the Response to Infectious Disease Transmissions

Governor David A. Paterson today joined State legislators to announce a landmark agreement that will dramatically improve patient safety, enhance the State’s authority in medical investigations and help to prevent future infection control violations. The landmark legislation will boost the physician disciplinary system and increase the authority of the Department of Health (DOH) in epidemiological investigations while also giving consumers access to more information about physicians, particularly those charged with misconduct, which is available by accessing the Department’s website, including the Doctor Profile.

The State Board for Professional Medical Conduct (Board), located within DOH, investigates allegations of misconduct by physicians, physician assistants and specialist assistants through the Office for Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC). If OPMC recommends that charges be filed, licensees may request a hearing, and substantiated charges may result in penalties, including the revocation or suspension of a license.

“While physicians and other health care practitioners in New York State are among the best in the world, there will always be a limited number of practitioners who fail to adhere to proper standards of care,” said Governor Paterson. “This legislation will bring important changes to our system of disciplining physicians ensuring that cases of misconduct are uncovered, reported and acted upon – even as we remain mindful that persons charged with misconduct have a due process right to challenge such charges. I want to thank the Legislature for coming together to pass this landmark legislation, which will greatly improve patients’ access to information and lead to better health care for all New York’s residents.”

The bill will enhance the existing system of professional discipline as follows:

• Require the Board to make charges public within five business days when the Board has unanimously voted to proceed with a hearing and charges are served upon a physician. In cases where the Board does not vote unanimously to proceed with a hearing, they will vote to decide whether or not such charges should be made public. A statement advising that the charges or determinations are subject to challenge by the physician will accompany the charges.
• Require physicians to more regularly update their physician profiles which contain information such as educational background, practice area, and legal actions (which are available to the public at www.nydoctorprofile.com) by making these updates a condition of re-registration. Information about licensure actions is available through a link to the OPMC website.
• Allow OPMC in certain circumstances to more easily obtain a physician’s own personal medical records if there is reason to believe that he or she may be impaired by alcohol, drugs, physical disability or mental disability or has a medical condition that may be relevant to an inquiry into a report of a communicable disease.

The bill also addresses public health issues concerning communicable diseases and infection control by increasing the State’s ability to disseminate information, enhance enforcement and improve training. The bill will:

• Authorize DOH to disclose information to the public as needed regarding public health threats that come to light in the course of an OMPC investigation, notwithstanding otherwise applicable confidentiality provisions.
• Authorize DOH to direct a physician to cease any activity uncovered during a communicable disease investigation that constitutes an imminent danger to health.
• Provide that course work or training in infection control practices, already required for physicians, physician assistants and specialist assistants, must also be completed by every medical student, medical resident and physician assistant student. The bill would also require that documentation of such training, which must be provided to DOH under current law, also attests to the practitioner’s competence in the course content.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno said: “People throughout the State put faith in their doctors -- to protect them, and to protect their families. This legislation will ensure that misconduct by physicians will be investigated and properly dealt with and will ensure the safety of patients, leading to better quality of care for all New Yorkers.”

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said: “The Assembly Majority has been a strong advocate for improving patient safety. This legislation will offer greater protection from unfit physicians by strengthening the physician disciplinary process while ensuring appropriate due process protections, and bring a new level of safety to our patients by making information about particular professional misconduct proceedings available to consumers. By passing this landmark measure, New York will have stronger infection control standards and improved patient safety measures. We will continue to work to ensure our state can give the best care possible for patients all across New York.”

Senate Minority Leader Malcolm A. Smith said: “I commend Governor Paterson for meeting these challenges and establishing greater protections for patients seeking medical attention. With greater physician accountability in New York, families can rest assured that their health care and providers will be to the highest standards we as lawmakers can give them.”

Senator Kemp Hannon, Chair of the Senate Health Committee said: “The patient/physician relationship is founded on trust. When a doctor fails to fulfill his or her professional obligations, as has recently been the case, that trust is violated and a patient’s perception of the entire medical community can be forever skewed. While I am 100 percent confident in the abilities of health care providers throughout the state, this bill is a necessary first step toward restoring the public’s faith in a medical profession which, due to the actions of a few, has been fractured.”

Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, Chair of the Assembly Health Committee, said: “The bill strengthens regulation and enforcement to protect patient safety and builds important due-process safeguards into the physician discipline system.”

Senator John Sampson, Ranking Member on the Senate Health Committee, said: “I applaud the Governor and my Senate colleagues for working to better inform and protect patients. This agreement will enact tougher disciplinary actions against physicians and make public the results of those actions. This agreement is a necessary step in improving health care statewide.”

New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D., said: “This legislation will strengthen our ability to ensure patient safety by increasing the Department of Health’s ability to identify and investigate potential cases of physician misconduct. The bill will also help prevent the transmission of infections in health care settings by increasing medical student and medical resident training in infection control and requiring the reporting of suspected disease transmission that occurs in office-based surgery practices.”

Arthur Levin, Director of the Center for Medical Consumers, said: “The Governor is to be commended for taking a big step towards a more transparent and effective physician discipline process in New York State. By publishing formal charges against physicians, New York joins the majority of other states in warning patients that there may be serious questions about a doctor's competency. This and all the other provisions of the legislation are a victory for patient safety.”

Blair Horner, Legislative Director of NYPIRG, said: “Governor Paterson, Health Commissioner Daines, and the State’s legislative leadership deserve credit for this important patient safety measure. As a result of their hard work, patients will be offered significantly better protection from substandard health care. As a result, lives will be saved.”

The legislation will take effect ninety days after enactment.