Law stops disclosure of medical mistakes

The medical-malpractice law passed last year does prevent public disclosure of individual hospitals' reports of errors such as performing surgery on the wrong body part or leaving behind objects in surgery patients, the state Attorney General's Office has advised the Department of Health.

The Attorney General's Office memo, written last week, was obtained through a public-disclosure request. Attorney-client privilege, which could prevent release of the information, was waived by the health department.

The issue received widespread attention recently after the health department agreed to stop publicly disclosing so-called "adverse events or incidents" at the request of the Washington State Hospital Association. The health department has collected and publicly disclosed certain errors since 2000, but the hospital association argued that the 2006 law stopped the hospital-specific disclosures and the health department agreed, pending a legal opinion from the Attorney General's Office.

After media reports about the situation prompted a deluge of complaints to the hospital association, officials there said the group would work to change the law so hospital-specific reports could continue to be public. The association said it would also seek to include more context about individual hospitals reporting errors.

In the legal interpretation, Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Hymans said the state's Public Records Act was changed by the medical-malpractice law to specifically exempt any notifications or reports of adverse events or incidents made under that law.

Those changes also prevent disclosure under the law passed in 2000, Hymans said.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com