Patient Safety Reporting Initiative, NJDHSS

View of Operating Room In 2004, the New Jersey Patient Safety Act (P.L. 2004, c9) was signed into law. The statute was designed to improve patient safety in hospitals and other health care facilities by establishing a medical error reporting system.

Rather than seeking to place blame, the system promotes comprehensive reporting of adverse patient events, systematic analysis of their causes, and creation of solutions that will improve health care quality and save lives.

This site is designed to help health care facilities develop strong patient safety programs and fulfill the law’s mandatory reporting requirements.

Helpful Links for Consumers about Patient Safety:

June Alert: Automatic Endoscope Reprocessors. An alert on a potentially Serious Adverse Event a “near miss” involving automatic endoscope reprocessors that had the incorrect disinfection time set and no temperature gauge.

The Patient Safety Initiative is pleased to provide Consensus Definitions for the RCA Form. This document provides definitions and examples for the codes on the RCA Form to help support your continual efforts to improve patient safety and to maintain consistency in reporting.

Patient Safety Liaison Contact Form for reporting adverse patient safety events.

Event: A newborn boy of immigrant parents had a circumcision performed. The father later stated that he did not want his son circumcised. The nurse discussed the circumcision with the mother and father in the delivery room immediately after the child was born while helping the mother breast feed the baby. The mother did not speak English; the nurse did not feel there was a language barrier with the father. The mother signed the permission form and a covering obstetrician performed the circumcision.

Facility Strategy: The facility now requires documentation of the discussion regarding circumcision during the prenatal period. If the parents do not want the procedure, the Attending will document NO CIRC in the medical record. In addition, the need for and availability of proper translation facilities for communication with patients who have limited English proficiency will be stressed with all staff.

Previous Prevention Strategies

Department of Health and Senior Services P. O. Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360 Phone: (609) 292-7837 Toll-free in NJ: 1-800-367-6543 Our Locations
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