NJ mandating fuller hospital error disclosures

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - August 30, 2009 The legislation - which also bars hospitals from charging insurers or patients for procedures to correct certain medical mistakes or hospital-acquired conditions - is due to be signed into law Monday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The measure requires the Health and Senior Services Department to publish how often certain egregious errors - such as operating on the wrong body part or leaving a sponge or instrument inside a patient's body - occur at each hospital.

Health care facilities already report preventable medical mistakes, but the state has published only the number of errors, not the data for individual hospitals.

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