Federal officials announced Friday they will launch a $25 million project expected to be the largest-ever federal investment connecting patient safety and medical liability.
The demonstration and planning grants are part of the patient safety and medical liability initiative President Barack Obama announced last year.
Under the initiative, Obama directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to help states and healthcare systems test models that put patient safety first and work to reduce preventable injuries.
According to HHS, the initiative will also foster better communication between doctors and patients, and help to ensure that patients are compensated fairly and quickly for medical injuries, while reducing the incidence of medical malpractice lawsuits and reducing liability premiums.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said $23 million of the funding will be allocated to new grants, with $2 million reserved for final evaluation of the project.
According to Sebelius, the $23 million will be used for grants to jump-start the project with three-year grants of up to $3 million for states and health systems. In addition, HHS will offer one-year planning grants of up to $300,000 to states and health systems to help them implement and evaluate the patient safety and medical liability demonstrations.
"This new research is the largest government investment connecting medical liability to quality and aims to improve the overall quality of healthcare," Sebelius said.
Some of the reforms that are being planned and tested under HHS's initiative will address limitations of the current medical liability system - such as costs, patient safety, and administrative burden for doctors, Sebelius said.
In addition, the grants will support the creation of a judge-directed negotiation program, the development of "safe harbors" for state-endorsed evidence-based care guidelines, and early disclosure and offers of prompt compensation.
Another component of the initiative is an evaluation of improvements in both patient safety and medical liability systems. The evaluation is designed to develop the evidence base that will inform long-term solutions to the medical liability problem. This evaluation project was awarded to JBA/RAND for $2 million, she said.
Carolyn Clancy, MD, director of AHRQ, said the goals of the initiative are widely supported by the healthcare industry.
"We solicited broad-based input to ensure that it reflects the needs of stakeholders," she said. "The projects we have funded help create measurable differences in the safety of healthcare for patients and help bring rationality and fairness to our medical liability system."
According to HHS, the demonstration grants have been awarded to:
- Timothy McDonald, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, $2,998,083;
- Stanley Davis, MD, Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis, MN, $2,982,690;
- Eric Thomas, MD, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX, $1,796,575;
- Ann Hendrich, Ascension Health System, St. Louis, MO, $2,990,612;
- Thomas Gallagher, MD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, $2,972,209;
- Judy Kluger, New York State Unified Court System, New York, NY, $2,999,787;
- Alice Bonner, Massachusetts State Department of Public Health, Boston, MA, $2,912,566.
Planning grants were awarded to:
- Lynn Marie Crider, Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research, Portland, OR $299,458;
- Richard David, MD, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, $293,225;
- Dianne Garcia, Multicare Health System, Tacoma, WA, $291,810;
- Wendell Hoffman, MD, Sanford Research, Sioux Falls, SD, $294,137;
- Elizabeth Guenther, MD, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, $299,999;
- Karen Domino, MD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, $295,837;
- David Baker, Carilion Medical Center, Roanoke, VA, $280,924;
- Kenneth Sands, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, $273,782;
- Nicoletta Tessler, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL, $299,576;
- Cynthia Shellhaas, MD, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, $187,437;
- John Buckley, MD, Wishard Health Services, Indianapolis, IN, $154,124;
- Cindy Lou Corbett, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, $298,810;
- Steven Crane, MD, NC State/Department HHS, Raleigh, NC, $297,710.