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News Release

STATEMENT BY TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Secretary of Health and Human Services
On House Passage of the Patient Safety Bill

We applaud the House of Representatives for passing legislation creating new patient safety organizations. Under the bill, providers would voluntarily submit information regarding medical errors to these organizations, which would then be able to analyze patterns of errors and identify needed systems changes. By creating a system that will encourage physicians and providers to freely share information about adverse events, this bill will enable us to develop and implement new procedures and techniques to protect patients and prevent correctable errors.

We now urge the Senate to take prompt action so that this bill may quickly go to the President for signature. Prompt action to ensure patient safety is a necessary step to strengthen health care in our country. The American health care consumer, young and old, deserves no less.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: March 13, 2003