NY State Assembly Bill 2009-A9114

Assembly Bill A9114

2009-2010 Legislative Session

Requires hospital incident reports to be simultaneously provided to the affected patients and/or their legal representatives

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Assembly Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 06, 2010	referred to codes
Sep 04, 2009	referred to codes

2009-A9114 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Assembly Codes
Law Section:: Civil Practice Law and Rules
Laws Affected:: Amd §214-a, CPLR; amd §2805-l, Pub Health L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2011-2012: A4909
2013-2014: A2138
2015-2016: A4966
2017-2018: A2916

2009-A9114 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Requires general hospital which submits an incident report to the department of health to simultaneously provide a copy of such report to the affected patients and/ or their legal representatives; stays the statute of limitations for medical, dental and podiatric malpractice causes of action until one year after an incident report is submitted.

2009-A9114 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                BILL NUMBER:A9114

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the civil practice law and rules and
the public health law, in relation to the provision of hospital
incident reports to the affected patients or their representatives

PURPOSE:  This bill would provide extend the statute of limitations in
medical, dental or podiatric malpractice actions against a hospital
where the hospital has violated section 2805-1 of the public health
law by failing to file an incident report as mandated by that section.
It also requires such reports to be sent to the patient and their
representative.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:  Section 1 - tolls the statute of limitations
in a medical, dental or podiatric malpractice action so that where
there is a failure by a hospital to file an incident report as
mandated by the public health law, a plaintiff has a year from the
date of filing of such report in which to commence an action.

In addition, it tolls the statute limitations in a medical, dental or
podiatric malpractice action so that where an action is time-barred
against an individual healthcare service provider, an action may still
be commenced against a hospital where either the individual or the
hospital has failed to file an incident report as mandated by the
public health law, a plaintiff has a year from the date of filing of
such report in which to commence an action.

Section 2 - requires incident reports submitted to the Department of
Health under section 2805-l of the public health law also be sent to
the patient and their representative.

Section 3 - effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:  Despite having been a requirement for over twenty
years, there are abundant reports of hospitals failing to file
incident reports as mandated by the public health law. These incident
reports are required in order to give the Department of Health notice
that a significant incident has occurred, such as a patient death
under circumstances other than as a result of the course of disease,
injury or proper treatment. It also includes situations that harmed
patients, such as fires, equipment malfunctions, or poisonings.
According to a Harvard study, over 7,000 New Yorkers die each year as
a result of preventable medical errors.  Clearly, these reports are a
significant tool that should be used to prevent the recurrence of harm
or death to patients.

Yet by failing to timely file such reports, hospitals are preventing
the Department of Health from asserting its authority to make sure the
public is adequately protected in the case of substandard patient care
of hospital environment.

Furthermore, the law fails to permit notification to those most
directly affected by such unfortunate events-the patient themselves,
as well as family or others who are designated to help make crucial
decisions for the patient. By tolling the statute of limitations on
malpractice actions against hospitals, such institutions are
incentivized to obey the clear letter of the law. Furthermore,


hospitals will not be able to protect themselves from liability for
their harmful actions simply by ignoring the law, and thereby further
harming the patient in question-first by whatever action led to the
requirement of filing the incident report, then again by not filing
the report, thus preventing the patient or their representative from
accessing information that could help them recover damages for their
death or injury.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:  New Legislation

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:.:  None

EFFECTIVE DATE:  Immediately

2009-A9114 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  9114

                       2009-2010 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                            September 4, 2009
                               ___________

Introduced by M. of A. GIANARIS -- read once and referred to the Commit-
  tee on Codes

AN  ACT  to amend the civil practice law and rules and the public health
  law, in relation to the provision of hospital incident reports to  the
  affected patients or their representatives

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as
the "patient sunlight act".
  S  2. Section 214-a of the civil practice law and rules, as amended by
chapter 485 of the laws of 1986, is amended to read as follows:
  S 214-a. Action for medical, dental or  podiatric  malpractice  to  be
commenced  within two years and six months; exceptions. 1. An action for
medical, dental or podiatric malpractice must be  commenced  within  two
years  and  six  months of the act, omission or failure complained of or
last treatment where there is continuous treatment for the same illness,
injury or condition which gave rise to the said act, omission  or  fail-
ure[; provided, however, that where].
  2.  (A)  NOTWITHSTANDING  THE  PROVISIONS  OF  SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS
SECTION, AN ACTION FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL OR PODIATRIC MALPRACTICE NEED NOT
BE COMMENCED WITHIN TWO YEARS AND SIX MONTHS OF  THE  ACT,  OMISSION  OR
FAILURE COMPLAINED OF OR LAST TREATMENT WHERE THERE IS CONTINUOUS TREAT-
MENT  FOR  THE SAME ILLNESS, INJURY OR CONDITION WHICH GAVE RISE TO SAID
ACT, OMISSION OR FAILURE, IF THE DEFENDANT IS  A  GENERAL  HOSPITAL,  AS
DEFINED  IN  SUBDIVISION  TEN OF SECTION TWENTY-EIGHT HUNDRED ONE OF THE
PUBLIC HEALTH LAW, AND  HAS  FAILED  TO  FILE  AN  INCIDENT  REPORT,  AS
REQUIRED  BY  SECTION  TWENTY-EIGHT  HUNDRED  FIVE-L  OF  SUCH  LAW,  IN
CONNECTION WITH THE INCIDENT THAT IS  THE  SUBJECT  OF  THE  MALPRACTICE
ACTION. IN SUCH CASE, THE ACTION MAY BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE YEAR OF THE
DATE SUCH INCIDENT REPORT IS FILED.

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD14587-01-9

A. 9114                             2

  (B) NOTWITHSTANDING THE PROVISIONS OF SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION,
AN  ACTION  FOR  MEDICAL,  DENTAL  OR  PODIATRIC MALPRACTICE NEED NOT BE
COMMENCED WITHIN TWO YEARS AND SIX MONTHS OF THE ACT, OMISSION OR  FAIL-
URE  COMPLAINED OF OR LAST TREATMENT WHERE THERE IS CONTINUOUS TREATMENT
FOR  THE  SAME ILLNESS, INJURY OR CONDITION WHICH GAVE RISE TO SAID ACT,
OMISSION OR FAILURE, WHERE SUCH ACTION IS AGAINST A GENERAL HOSPITAL, AS
DEFINED IN SUBDIVISION TEN OF SECTION TWENTY-EIGHT HUNDRED  ONE  OF  THE
PUBLIC HEALTH LAW, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SUCH ACTION IS OTHERWISE BARRED
BY  SUBDIVISION  ONE OF THIS SECTION AGAINST ANY PERSON LICENSED, CERTI-
FIED OR REGISTERED PURSUANT TO TITLE EIGHT OF THE EDUCATION  LAW,  WHERE
SUCH  INDIVIDUAL  OR  GENERAL  HOSPITAL  HAS  FAILED TO FILE AN INCIDENT
REPORT, AS REQUIRED BY SECTION TWENTY-EIGHT HUNDRED FIVE-L OF SUCH  LAW,
IN  CONNECTION  WITH THE INCIDENT THAT IS THE SUBJECT OF THE MALPRACTICE
ACTION. IN SUCH CASE, THE ACTION MAY BE COMMENCED WITHIN ONE YEAR OF THE
DATE SUCH INCIDENT REPORT IS FILED.
  3.  WHERE the action is based upon the discovery of a  foreign  object
in  the body of the patient, the action may be commenced within one year
of the date of such discovery or of the date of discovery of facts which
would reasonably lead to such discovery, whichever is earlier.  For  the
purpose  of  this  section  the  term  "continuous  treatment" shall not
include examinations undertaken at the request of the  patient  for  the
sole  purpose  of ascertaining the state of the patient's condition. For
the purpose of this section the term "foreign object" shall not  include
a chemical compound, fixation device or prosthetic aid or device.
  S  3. Subdivisions 4 and 5 of section 2805-l of the public health law,
subdivision 5 as renumbered by chapter 632 of  the  laws  of  2006,  are
renumbered  subdivisions  5  and  6, and a new subdivision 4 is added to
read as follows:
  4. NOTWITHSTANDING ANY PROVISION OF LAW TO THE CONTRARY, COPIES OF ANY
REPORTS SUBMITTED TO THE  DEPARTMENT  PURSUANT  TO  THIS  SECTION  SHALL
SIMULTANEOUSLY BE PROVIDED TO:
  (A)  THE  PATIENT OR PATIENTS WHO WERE AFFECTED IN SUCH A MANNER AS TO
REQUIRE THE SUBMISSION OF SUCH INCIDENT REPORT;
  (B) IN THE EVENT SUCH A PATIENT IS  DECEASED  OR  INCAPACITATED,  SUCH
REPORT  SHALL  BE  PROVIDED TO THE PATIENT'S LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE OR THE
LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PATIENT'S ESTATE; AND
  (C) THE PERSONS, FAMILY OR OTHER PARTY IDENTIFIED  IN  THE  HOSPITAL'S
RECORDS AS THE PARTY OR PARTIES DESIGNATED BY SUCH PATIENT FOR NOTIFICA-
TION OR CONSULTATION IN THE EVENT OF THE PATIENT'S INCAPACITY OR DEATH.
  S 4. This act shall take effect immediately.

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