Published: October 19, 2006 10:48 pm         

Hoosier senators introducing bill requiring hospitals to report on meeting safety standards

TERRE HAUTE — Indiana Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh plan to introduce legislation that would require hospitals to report on meeting safety measures aimed at minimizing errors in giving prescription medication to patients.

Lugar, a Republican, and Bayh, a Democrat, plan to introduce the legislation in November, once Congress is back in session. The recent deaths of three premature babies at an Indianapolis hospital prompted the congressmen to draft the bill, said Meghan Keck, the communications director for Bayh’s office in Washington, D.C.

“I think it’s always a good thing in Washington to see Republicans and Democrats working together, especially when you see the partisan atmosphere that is in Washington today,” Keck said. “But senators Bayh and Lugar have a long history of working together.”

The legislation calls for the secretary of Health and Human Services to work with national medical organizations to adopt new safety measures, which would limit human error when prescribing medication.

The infants who died were given an adult dosage of herapin, an anti-blood clotting drug.

“So really this is a larger problem that deserves attention and is a cause of concern,” said Emily Krueger, deputy press secretary for Lugar’s Washington, D.C., office, “and it’s our hope that after this bill is introduced … that it’s something that could be passed before the end of the year.”

Several safety measures could help hospitals reduce human error, according to a news release issued by the senators. The release suggests electronic prescribing to prevent errors, bar codes that would contain individual dosages and specialized intravenous pumps that alert nurses if a dose of medicine exceeds established limits.

Local hospitals either have or are working on new measures similar to those suggested. Union Hospital in Terre Haute is working on a system that would generate bar codes on patients’ arm bands that would carry the patient’s prescription and dosage information.

“We definitely went back and looked at our system and how we do things” after the infants’ accident, said Kristi Roshel, public relations manager at Union Hospital.

Terre Haute Regional Hospital already has such a bar-code system in place. Regional Hospital also is working to implement “smart I.V. pumps” that let nurses know if a dose exceeds a pre-determined limit, and an electronic prescription system.

“It’s a computer system that will eliminate the possibility that a doctor’s handwriting results in a patient getting the wrong medication or the wrong drug,” said Regional’s marketing director Meredith Swaby.

The senators hope that the bill could be passed shortly after introduction, and the measures would go into effect by October 2007, Krueger said.

Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.