Patient safety leader encouraged by Mass. hospitals' medical errors policy

A leader of the patient-safety movement today called the Massachusetts Hospital Association's decision to stop charging patients for care caused by some medical errors an encouraging sign.

"I really think this is a very important step," Dr. Lucian Leape (left), a Harvard School of Public Health professor and an author of the landmark Institute of Medicine report on medical errors, said in an interview. "I think the hospitals are stepping up to the plate. They are demonstrating their willingness to hold themselves accountable for safe healthcare."

Leape also called it a positive development that Massachusetts hospitals have gone beyond a Medicare list of what it will not pay for, to include medication errors and injuries.