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Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) co-founder and President, Susan E. Sheridan, MIM, MBA, provided testimony to the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in Washington, DC. In a hearing focused on new ideas for making the system work better for patients, Sheridan urged Senators to move away from the struggle over caps on damages that has dominated debate on tort reform over the last 30 years.

"When medical harm occurs, the current medical legal system fosters hand-to-hand combat between patients and families on one side and their healthcare providers on the other," said Sheridan. "It also buries important information about what went wrong. We cannot achieve our country's patient safety goals so long as the legal system incentivizes hiding, tolerates dishonesty and drives consumers and providers to see each other as enemies."

The focus of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing is S. 1337, the "Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act," co-sponsored by Senators Enzi (R - WY) and Baucus (D - MT). The bill is designed to promote patient safety by fostering state demonstration projects designed to investigate promising approaches such as specialized medical courts. States would be used as laboratories to conceive and evaluate alternatives to tort litigation that promote early disclosure of healthcare errors and provide prompt, fair and reasonable compensation to patients who are injured.

"CAPS applauds Senators Enzi and Baucus for tackling this issue on a bi-partisan basis," said Sheridan. "Aligning patient safety and medical liability goals will take the vision, wisdom and co-operation of everyone who cares about reducing medical harm."

Mrs. Sheridan's family experienced two preventable medical catastrophes, one of which led to irreversible brain damage of her newborn son Cal in 1995, and the second of which cost the life of her husband Pat in 2002 when a pathology report showing cancer was never communicated. Having experienced litigation of Cal's claim, the family tried very hard, but unsuccessfully, to avoid litigating after Pat was injured. Both claims were settled.

Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS) is a consumer-led non-profit organization formed to be a collective voice for individuals, families and healers who wish to prevent harm in healthcare encounters through partnership and collaboration. CAPS envisions a partnership between consumers and providers to create global healthcare systems that are safe, compassionate and just.

All witness testimony from this hearing is available on the Web site of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions at http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2006_06_22/2006_06_22.html.