The Montreal Gazette‘s Charlie Fidelman has assembled a round-up of what has, and hasn’t, happened in the eight years since Quebec passed a law requiring hospitals to tell patients about all adverse events as soon as staff became aware of them.
According to Fidelman, “the provincial Health Department has yet to set up its registry of adverse events,” which it was supposed to track in order to improve patient safety. It’s expected to finally get started next year.
Until then, hospitals are supposed to track their own events and report them each year, yet “no hospital contacted by The Gazette includes adverse events in its annual reports.” This may have something to do with the fact that the requirement came with no clear enforcement mechanism.
