NV hospital safety bills eyed in session

Perhaps the most significant sign that opinion has shifted on whether patients can be trusted with information about Nevada hospitals' safety records: The Nevada Hospital Association and Nevada State Medical Association supported bills requiring such disclosure during the 2011 Legislature. Nevada's health care community "knows it's a national trend. They know that it was coming," said Bill Welch, CEO of the Hospital Association. Indeed, bills that have passed or are likely to pass the 2011 Legislature will give consumers better information to use in selecting hospitals by giving them access to the facilities' rates of preventable infections and other harm, safety advocates say. Once consumers begin to choose hospitals based on safety performance, it will create competition to improve their safety records, state Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said.