Legislation in Victoria, Australia introduces a duty of candour, "a legal obligation to ensure that consumers of healthcare and their families are apologised to, and communicated with, openly and honestly when things have gone wrong in their care." An existing Australian Open Disclosure Framework is still in effect with the duty of candour now added.
September 12, 2022
September 07, 2022
Professional Standards Authority: "Safer Care for All" report
The Professional Standards Authority in the UK has just published "Safer Care for All: Solutions from professional regulation and beyond," a report that proposes solutions to challenges facing health and social care around tackling inequalities; regulating for new risks; the workforce crisis; and accountability, fear, and public safety. One main recommendation is the establishment of an independent Health and Social Care Safety Commissioner in each UK country "with broad responsibility for identifying, monitoring, reporting, and advising on ways of addressing patient and service user risks."
Read more, including the executive summary, table of recommendations, and the full report.
July 06, 2022
Virginia establishes Office of Regulatory Management
An Executive Order n Virginia establishes the Office of Regulatory Management to "streamline regulatory activities across the executive branch and manage cross-departmental functions such as regulations, permits, and grants. The ORM will review all agency regulations and initiate the “Unified Regulatory Plan” by which all agencies will annually publish a publicly available list of all expected regulations for the upcoming year. This Executive Order also calls for tracking new regulatory requirements for each new effective regulation and reviewing all existing regulations every four years." All proposed regulations will be posted on Virginia's Regulatory Town Hall website.
June 29, 2022
Report on medical board transparency about sexual misconduct
The Informed Patient Institute and the Patient Safety Action Network have released a report on "Communicating about Physician Sexual Misconduct: How are state medical boards doing?" The report is focused on transparency and education of the public and physicians about sexual misconduct. From the report: "In the initial review by volunteer researchers, only eight out of the 64 websites reviewed had information about physician sexual misconduct directed at consumers/patients and 15 had information directed at physicians. Upon further examination of these and other sites, we found only a few with policies and materials that demonstrated to the public and doctors the seriousness with which these regulators handled such violations. These included state medical boards that had clear policy statements about sexual misconduct, informative and easy to find materials for the public and physicians and provided training on the topic. On the other hand, we also found state boards frequently used euphemistic language to obscure sexual misconduct. Many states didn’t have any material that we could find." The report gives a series of recommendations "focused on state medical board website information available for the public and for physicians as well as training and other activities."
June 22, 2022
South Carolina: medical rights of conscience law
A bill awaiting the governor's signature in South Carolina would allow licensed healthcare professionals to deny services based on their own "religious, moral or ethical beliefs or principles." The bill, known as the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, is a medical rights of conscience law and would protect doctors, nurses, and medical students from being fired or disciplined for opting out of performing certain services. The law would not apply to emergency medical treatment or allow refusal on the basis of race.
May 04, 2022
European Health Data Space proposal
The European Commission has released an FAQ document regarding the European Health Data Space (EHDS) proposal. The EHDS is "a health-specific data sharing framework establishing clear rules, common standards and practices, infrastructures and a governance framework for the use of electronic health data by patients and for research, innovation, policy making, patient safety, statistics or regulatory purposes." Health professionals would benefit from improved interoperability and easier access to patients' medical history across borders for improved continuity of care. Regulators would be able to access health data for evidence-based policymaking and more efficient functioning of healthcare systems.
March 02, 2022
Update: Florida bills on condo association registry stall
Several bills in Florida related to condominium association boards have either not been referred to committee or did not receive a hearing during this legislative session. One bill would have updated education standards for condo association board directors. Another bill would have created an online database to be maintained under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation that would have included details about condo boards.
July 28, 2021
Illinois law requires explanation for license denial
A new Illinois law effective January 1, 2022 will require the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to provide an explanation to applicants whose application is denied due to a criminal conviction. The explanation must state "how the conviction directly relates to and would prevent the person from effectively engaging in the position for which a license, registration, or certificate is sought." IDFPR must also list on their website all state licensing restrictions that would prohibit an applicant from working in a licensed profession.
July 15, 2021
Australia: new breach reporting obligations for financial advisers
Recent updates to the Corporations Act will create new breach reporting obligations for financial advisers. The new obligations will begin October 1 and require licensees to report a breach of the Corporations Act by an adviser to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission according to a broader range of scenarios deemed "reportable situations." There is concern that the report requirements will create additional burden for licensees. The ASIC will begin publishing an annual register of licensee level breach report data.
July 07, 2021
Update: UK government to consider nursing job titles
A petition in the UK to protect the title "nurse" has received the required signatures for government action, and the Department of Health and Social Care "will consider in detail whether the protection of title offences relating to registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates are the right ones when bringing forward reform of the NMC’s [Nursing and Midwifery Council] legal framework, following our consultation on the reform of all healthcare professional regulation."
