Letter to Rep. Conyers on
"Patient and Physician Safety and Protection Act"
January 4, 2002
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives
2426 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2214
Dear Representative Conyers:
I write to express the opposition of the Association of American
Medical Colleges (AAMC) to H.R. 3236, "The Patient and
Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2001." The AAMC
represents the nation's 125 accredited allopathic medical
schools, over 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems,
98 professional and academic societies representing over 100,000
faculty, and the nation's medical students and residents.
The AAMC agrees that the issues addressed in this legislation
are very important - bearing on both the well being of residents
in training and the safety of the patients under their care.
However, we disagree with the need for, or appropriateness
of, legislation in this arena. The mechanisms that are in
place in the private sector to safeguard the public's interest
in these matters have evolved over decades. They are grounded
in the medical profession's recognition of the importance
of supporting and protecting residents, its commitment to
the paramount ethical obligation to protect patients, and
its understanding of the need to continually improve the quality
of medical education.
As an organizational member of the ACGME, the AAMC is working
with other member organizations and with the ACGME to strengthen
further the Council's duty hour requirements and its effectiveness
in assuring compliance. While work remains to be done to achieve
the goals espoused by H.R. 3236, the academic medical community
fully recognizes the need for continuous improvement and has
already made substantial progress in dealing with current
concerns about resident and patient well being in our graduate
medical education programs.
The AAMC also plays an important role by exercising leadership
on behalf of its member medical schools, teaching hospitals,
and academic societies. As an example, the governing body
of the AAMC recently approved the enclosed policy guidance
on resident education, duty hours, and supervision. The guidelines
have been widely disseminated and address the responsibilities
of institutional sponsors to provide residency program oversight;
to assure an optimal learning environment for residents; and
to maintain proper balance between educational activities
and patient care duties for their residents.
The unquestioned excellence of graduate medical education
in the United States is in no small part traceable to the
effectiveness of the medical profession's self-regulatory
mechanisms for assuring compliance with the high standards
established by experienced educators and practitioners. I
can assure you that the leadership of American medicine remains
committed to this traditional source of excellence. We believe
that continued reliance on these proven mechanisms offers
a far greater likelihood of success in dealing with the concerns
addressed by H.R. 3236 than does the introduction of legislative
and regulatory strictures into the complex environment of
graduate medical education.
I would be happy to discuss these issues with you at any
time. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jordan J. Cohen, M.D.
Enclosure
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