Medibank announces independent clinical review process and release of adverse events list
Medibank has today released its list of 165 adverse events to alleviate any misconceptions that the clinical community, or their patients, may have about its impact.
It also announced it will introduce an independent clinical review process to clarify situations where responsibility for the adverse event is unclear.
Medibank’s Executive General Manager Dr Andrew Wilson said Medibank was pleased that the Minister for Health, Sussan Ley, has asked the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to fast track a standard list of avoidable medical mistakes in hospitals.
Dr Wilson will be speaking at the Catholic Health Australia conference today. He said: “This process will accelerate what is an important debate around the quality and affordability of care.
“We hope to contribute to it. We have always maintained open communication channels with specialists and hospitals, and through our discussions we understand that adverse events that happen in hospitals are not always black and white.
“We accept there may be a small number of circumstances where hospitals do everything in their power and yet incidents still occur.
“This is why we are introducing an independent clinical review process. It will enable hospitals to put forward evidence in seeking to demonstrate that responsibility for the event is unclear and that the hospital has done everything possible to prevent the event.
“We have also heard the feedback from medical specialists that keeping our list of 165 adverse events confidential could cause confusion and genuine misunderstanding.
“That’s why we have made our list available on our website. We wanted to alleviate any misconceptions or confusion that the clinical community, or their patients, may have.
“At the heart of this is the fact that every year we wait, more and more Australians are subjected to the pain, discomfort and risk of these preventable events.
“If we don’t do something now, we run the risk of increasing costs and making private health insurance unaffordable for many Australians leaving the next generation with an unsustainable healthcare system.
Medibank members can rest assured that we will always pay for their hospital treatments even if we do not have a contract with a hospital. However, the hospital may choose to charge them for additional out of pocket expenses. If this happens they should call us directly.
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For further information please call Colin Neathercoat on 0412 076 622.