(a)The Department shall establish an adverse health event reporting system that will be fully operational by January 1, 2008 and designed to facilitate quality improvement in the health care system through communication and collaboration among the Department and health care facilities. The reporting system shall not be designed or used to punish errors or, except to enforce this Law, investigate or take disciplinary action against health care facilities, health care practitioners, or health care facility employees. The Department may not use the adverse health care event reports, findings of the root cause analyses, and corrective action plans filed under this Law for any purpose not stated in this Law, including, but not limited to, using such information for investigating possible viola
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(a) The Department shall establish an adverse health event reporting system that will be fully operational by January 1, 2008 and designed to facilitate quality improvement in the health care system through communication and collaboration among the Department and health care facilities. The reporting system shall not be designed or used to punish errors or, except to enforce this Law, investigate or take disciplinary action against health care facilities, health care practitioners, or health care facility employees. The Department may not use the adverse health care event reports, findings of the root cause analyses, and corrective action plans filed under this Law for any purpose not stated in this Law, including, but not limited to, using such information for investigating possible violations of the reporting health care facility's licensing act or its regulations. The Department is not authorized to select from or between competing alternate health care treatments, services, or practices. (b) The reporting system shall consist of: (1) Mandatory reporting by health care facilities of adverse health care events. (2) Mandatory completion of a root cause analysis and a corrective action plan by the health care facility and reporting of the findings of the analysis and the plan to the Department or reporting of reasons for not taking corrective action. (3) Analysis of reported information by the Department to determine patterns of systemic failure in the health care system and successful methods to correct these failures. (4) Sanctions against health care facilities for failure to comply with reporting system requirements. (5) Communication from the Department to health care facilities, to maximize the use of the reporting system to improve health care quality. (c) In establishing the adverse health event reporting system, including the design of the reporting format and annual report, the Department must consult with and seek input from experts and organizations specializing in patient safety. (d) The Department must design the reporting system so that a health care facility may file by electronic means the reports required under this Law. The Department shall encourage a health care facility to use the electronic filing option when that option is feasible for the health care facility. (e) Nothing in this Section prohibits a health care facility from taking any remedial action in response to the occurrence of an adverse health care event.