We are trying again.  This bill would restrict the gifts provided to health care workers.   While I believe a gift ban is far better, our legislature is worried about any bill that might cost jobs.  Pharmaceutical sales reps, deli and restaurant owners argue that if the free lunch was banned, they would cost jobs.  We have conceded this point - this can have their free lunch.  The second part of the bill requires disclosure of payments to physicans over $1,000.  We believe that the public has a right to know of financial ties a healthcare provider has with a medical device or pharmaceutical company.

 

 

This bill would require hospital specific reports of adverse events.

Thanks to Matt Kauffman, investigative journalist at the Hartford Courant, who demonstrated the failures of the hospital to report adverse events and the inability of the public to find out if there were patterns of error at one hospital, there is a great deal of public and legislative support for Senate Bill 248.  We have included in this bill the requirement that there be a random audit conducted of one or two hospitals yearly.  We know audits work.  When the central line infections in the ICU report was audited, it was found that there was 50% under reporting.  I feel that this legislation is a simple solution to a very complex problem.