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Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 18 Sec. 1915

  • Adverse event: is a ny untoward incident, therapeutic misadventure, iatrogenic injury, or other undesirable occurrence directly associated with care or services provided by a health care provider or health care facility. See
  • Causal analysis: means a formal root cause analysis, similar analytic methodologies, or any similarly effective but simplified processes that use a systematic approach to identify the basic or causal factors that underlie the occurrence or possible occurrence of a reportable adverse event, adverse event, or near miss. See
  • Corrective action plan: means a plan to implement strategies intended to eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of a recurrence of an adverse event and to measure the effectiveness of such strategies. See
  • Department: means the Department of Health. See
  • Serious bodily injury: means bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes substantial loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ or substantial impairment of health or substantial disfigurement. See

§ 1915. Hospital obligations

The rules adopted pursuant to this chapter shall require hospitals to:

(1) develop, maintain, and implement internal policies and procedures that meet the standards of the Department to:

(A) identify, track, and analyze reportable adverse events, adverse events, and near misses;

(B) determine what type of causal analysis, if any, is appropriate;

(C) conduct causal analyses and develop corrective action plans; and

(D) disclose to patients, or, in the case of a patient death, an adult member of the immediate family, at a minimum, adverse events that cause death or serious bodily injury;

(2) report reportable adverse events to the Department;

(3) provide the Department with copies of its causal analysis and corrective action plan in connection with each reportable adverse event;

(4) for reportable adverse events that must also by law be reported to other departments or agencies, notify the Department of Health or provide a copy of any written report and provide any causal analysis information required by the Department;

(5) for the purpose of evaluating a hospital’s compliance with the provisions of this chapter, provide the Commissioner and designees reasonable access to:

(A) information protected by the provisions of the patient’s privilege under 12 V.S.A. § 1612(a) or otherwise required by law to be held confidential; and

(B) the minutes and records of a peer review committee and any other information subject to peer review protection under 26 V.S.A. § 1443. (Added 2005, No. 215 (Adj. Sess.), § 324.)