STATE OF NEW YORK
       ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         8375
 
                              2001-2002 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                     April 6, 2001
                                      ___________
 
       Introduced  by  COMMITTEE  ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Stringer,
         Kaufman, Levy, Seddio, Ortiz,  Jacobs,  Clark,  Davis,  Galef,  Glick,
         Gordon,  Hikind,  Lavelle, Mayersohn) -- read once and referred to the
         Committee on Codes
 
       AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to  delay-
         ing the date when an action for medical, dental, or podiatric malprac-
         tice  must  be  commenced  until  the defendant has filed all required
         incident reports
 
         The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
       bly, do enact as follows:
 
    1    Section  1.  Section  214-a  of  the  civil practice law and rules, as
    2  amended by chapter 485 of the laws  of  1986,  is  amended  to  read  as
    3  follows:
    4    §  214-a.  Action  for  medical, dental or podiatric malpractice to be
    5  commenced within two years and six months; exceptions.   (1)  An  action
    6  for  medical,  dental  or podiatric malpractice must be commenced within
    7  two years and six months of the act, omission or failure  complained  of
    8  or  last  treatment  where  there  is  continuous treatment for the same
    9  illness, injury or condition which gave rise to the said  act,  omission
   10  or  failure;  provided, however, that where the action is based upon the
   11  discovery of a foreign object in the body of the patient, the action may
   12  be commenced within one year of the date of such  discovery  or  of  the
   13  date  of  discovery of facts which would reasonably lead to such discov-
   14  ery, whichever is earlier. For the purpose  of  this  section  the  term
   15  "continuous  treatment" shall not include examinations undertaken at the
   16  request of the patient for the sole purpose of ascertaining the state of
   17  the patient's condition. For  the  purpose  of  this  section  the  term
   18  "foreign  object" shall not include a chemical compound, fixation device
   19  or prosthetic aid or device.
   20    (2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section,
   21  an action for medical, dental, or  podiatric  malpractice  need  not  be
 
        EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD10745-01-1

       A. 8375                             2
 
    1  commenced  within  two years and six months if a defendant has failed to
    2  file an incident report as required by law in connection with  an  inci-
    3  dent  that is the subject of the malpractice action. In such a case, the
    4  action  may  be commenced within one year of the date on which the inci-
    5  dent report is filed.
    6    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately and  shall  apply  to  any
    7  action  in  connection with which an incident report has not been filed,
    8  regardless of whether or not the  period  of  limitation  has  otherwise
    9  expired.

 
BILL NUMBER: A8375
 
SPONSOR: Rules (Stringer)

 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in
relation to delaying the date when an action for medical, dental, or
podiatric malpractice must be commenced until the defendant has filed
all required incident reports
 
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: This bill would toll the current
statute of limitations on filing a medical malpractice case when a
hospital or doctor fails to report an incident to the proper authori-
ties. This bill would state that a malpractice action may be commenced
within one year of the date on which the incident report is filed. The
statute of limitations is currently two years and six months from the
date on which the act occurred.
 
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: The bill would amend section 214-a of
the civil practice law and rules, as amended by chapter 485 of the laws
of 1986, by stating that notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision
(I), an action for medical, dental, or podiatric malpractice need  
NOT
be commenced within two years and six months if a defendant has failed
to file an incident report as required by law in connection with an
incident that is the subject of the malpractice action.
 
In such case, the action may be commenced within one year of the date on
which the report is filed.
 
 
JUSTIFICATION:Medical professionals in New York State often do not
report every incident of mistakes and harm suffered by patients. Since
1985, the law has required reporting such incidents to the state, but
many hospitals and doctors have ignored the statutory requirements.
 
In 1999, the New York State Health Department released a study of data
submitted through the New York Patient Occurrence and Tracking System
(NYPORTS), the state's hospital incident reporting system. This report
states that hospitals in New York State are considerably under-reporting
mistakes and adverse incidents.
 
Patients that endure the confusion and suffering of medical, dental or
podiatric mistakes may, under current law, commence an action of malp-
ractice within two years and six months of the act. Patients whose
adverse incidents are not properly reported to the state should not be
limited to the current statute of limitations.  Under the current law, a
patient who experiences a medical, dental or podiatric mistake that is
not properly reported may not be able to commence a malpractice action
if the current statute of limitations has run out. Because this bill
would amend the current law to state that an action may be commenced
within one year after the incident report is filed, it rectifies the
disservice committed against the patient by allowing them the same
rights as patients whose adverse incidents are reported right away.
 
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New Bill
 
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None
 
 
EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect immediately