Regulatory

DMERCS Join Forces to Advise NSC: The four DMERC Advisory Committees are partnering to form an advisory group to the National Supplier Clearinghouse, according to published reports. The NSC Advisory Committee, as it will be named, will be comprised of three representatives from each of the four DACs. The NSC declined to comment on the advisory group.

The Region D DAC is holding nominations for elections that are expected to take place at the Medtrade in October.

FDA Issues Advisory on Bad Oxygen Connections: The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health issued a Public Health Advisory alerting health care professionals — particularly respiratory specialists — about the potential for patient injury with oxygen delivery system misconnections.

The FDA said that over the past four years, it has received reports of seven deaths and 15 injuries associated with medical gas misconnections that occurred in acute-care and nursing home settings. Misconnections between the device that delivers the oxygen and the tanks that contain the oxygen cause patients who should receive medical oxygen to receive another gas, such as nitrogen, instead, the FDA said.

For the complete advisory, go to http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2001/safety01.htm#medgas.

Patient's Bill Of Rights Passes House: The House of Representatives passed its version of a Patients' Bill of Rights on a vote of 226-203. Among other patient protections, the bill allows patients to sue their health maintenance organizations.

“This is a real victory for American patients,” said Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga. “We not only passed a bill, we passed a bill that the President has agreed to sign into law. If we can convince our Senate conferees to negotiate the small differences between the respective bills in good faith, patients should have their health care rights restored in short order.”

Although the bill does allow patients to sue their HMOs, it sets a cap for damages to be recovered at $1.5 million.

People & Places

New Representative at JCAHO: Marilyn Chow, R.N., P.N.P., D.Nsc., will fill the at-large nursing representative seat of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' board of commissioners beginning Jan. 1, 2002. Chow will serve a three-year term and succeeds Sally Sample, R.N., who has served on the board since 1993.

Parver Takes Top Position on Association Board: Corrine Parver, a partner with Washington-based Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, is the new chairwoman for the National Family Caregivers Association Board of Kensington, Md. Parver specializes in health law.

New Director of Communications At AAH: Julie B. Phillips is the new director of communications for the American Association for Homecare, Alexandria, Va. Phillips, who replaces Rusty Kelly, will direct all public and media relations and serve as lead writer and editor.