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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Rules: Coming to a Hospital Near You

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Friday, May 15, 2009   

Boston, MA – Transparency is coming to a hospital near you. This week the Massachusetts Public Health Council approved four new regulations pertaining to consumer access to hospital information. Hospitals and emergency centers are now required to make reports available to the public regarding a host of issues and events, including some that never should have happened, says Deb Wachenheim, quality coalition manager of Health Care for All in Boston.

"Things that are very serious, like wrong-site surgery, wrong-person surgery, very serious medication errors and very serious falls - a whole list of events now will be publicly reported."

In addition to releasing such reports, hospitals will be financially responsible in the event of serious medical errors – meaning they will no longer be able to bill patients or insurance companies if continued care is needed as a result of an error on the hospital's part. The new regulations will be phased in over the next year and a half. During that time, the Department of Health and Human Services will help hospital administrators with implementation.

Massachusetts hospitals also will be required to establish what are called "patient and family advisory councils." They will give patients and families a "seat at the table" in terms of the work the hospital does, according to James Conway, senior vice president at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

"Councils provide an extraordinary opportunity for patients and families to really work very closely with organizations, allowing them to participate in care and making them a collaborator in what we're doing."

More information is available at www.ma.gov.




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