Patient Safety and Patients' Rights

Author's version made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.Patient safety can be improved through the implementation of a physician reporting system, in which medical errors can be reported confidentially. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association

No More Kidding Around: Restructuring Non-Medical Childhood Immunization Exemptions to Ensure Public Health Protection

Professor Silverman\u27s article examines the complex challenges faced by U.S. policymakers attempting to balance the public health protections of mandatory childhood immunization programs with the legal, religious, philosophical, and practical concerns raised by permitting non-medical exemptions under the programs. The article begins with a discussion of the history of childhood immunization programs, and continues by describing the inconsistency of enforcement of state immunization laws and exemptions. The author analyzes recent cases from New York, Wyoming, and Arkansas, and discusses how these decisions both pose threats to these programs\u27 public health protections, while also offering insight into potential problems for other state vaccination programs. Professor Silverman concludes by advocating that states adopt an informed refusal approach to vaccination exemption as a way of improving immunity protections, while respecting the autonomy rights of those who wish to opt out of the program

Litigation, Regulation, and Education — Protecting the Public’s Health through Childhood Immunization

Published versio

Contact Tracing, Intrastate and Interstate Quarantine, and Isolation

Contact tracing, quarantine and isolation are core communicable disease control measures used by public health departments as part of a comprehensive case ascertainment and management strategy. These are practices with historic roots enabled by state laws and policies, and have been used by other countries to slow and stop the spread of COVID-19. To date, their implementation as part of U.S. response efforts at the national, state, and local levels has been confounded by the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak; lack of a systemic infectious disease response; insufficient and fragmented funding streams; low levels of public accountability; and concerns about the impact of such efforts on individual privacy, liberty, and travel rights, as well as the financial and personal costs that may arise out of a positive diagnosis. Recommendations have been offered by expert groups on both the scaling up of contact tracing and ensuring ethical implementation of such measures. One state has passed legislation establishing an oversight framework for state contact tracing and associated data collection and use. Legal challenges to interstate quarantine rules have, thus far, been unsuccessful. Recommendations include: appropriating federal funding adequate to mount and sustain rapid, comprehensive, culturally-appropriate state and local testing, treatment, contact tracing, and supported quarantine and isolation service efforts; building contact tracing systems that cover social as well as health care supports for those affected; and, to bolster trust and participation in public health efforts, implement contact tracing-related health communication efforts targeted to reach the diverse array of communities affected by the epidemic

Innovations in Opioid Law and Policy Interventions Workshop: Summary of Proceedings

In 2017, Indiana University, in cooperation with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb and community partners, launched the Grand Challenge: Responding to the Addictions Crisis initiative, a university-wide effort to advance interdisciplinary research and interventions in response to the substance abuse crisis affecting Indiana and the nation. The “Legal and Policy Best Practices in Response to the Substance Abuse Crisis” project is one of sixteen funded under Phase 1 of the Grand Challenge. In July 2018, and as part of this project, the research team convened a group of national experts to discuss legal and policy innovations to respond to the opioid use disorder (OUD) crisis. This report summarizes the proceedings of this workshop and updates some of the recommendations made by the team in their March 2018 Preliminary Report. During the workshop, experts answered targeted questions relating to the challenges in implementing law and policy recommendations to respond to the addiction crisis, as well as identified gaps in the current research. Participants provided examples of innovative interventions to respond to this crisis across four primary topic categories: (1) Criminalization; (2) Public Health; (3) Treatment; and (4) Effectuating Change