Patient Checklist Bill Passes Nevada Senate

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The Nevada Senate has passed a patient checklist bill that requires hospitals and medical facilities to adopt and use the checklist as part of an effort to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of patient care in the state.
“Requiring medical facilities to adopt patient checklists is something more and more states are doing because they reduce costly medical errors and improve health outcomes,” said Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, sponsor of AB 280.
“Nevadans will have access to higher quality health care because of this legislation.” Oceguera noted.
The bill is a positive response to the public outcry for better healthcare as well as an acknowledgement to patient safety advocates who’ve called on the industry to adopt such measures. One leading safety advocate, Dr. Atul Gawande published a book on the subject, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, a few years ago. We’ve advocated such common sense measures even though they’ve met with some resistance from the healthcare industry.
The Nevada Senate is to be commended for legislating patient safety. If the industry won’t do it, our elected officials have a duty to protect the public and increase patient safety. Hopefully, more states will follow Nevada’s lead.

Eva Bleich
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