Letter to Senator Corzine
on S.2614, "Patient and Physician Safety and Protection
Act of 2002"
July 9, 2002
The Honorable Jon Corzine
United States Senate
502 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Corzine:
I write to express the opposition of the Association of
American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to S. 2614, the "Patient
and Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2002. 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 the legislation
are very important. They bear on both the well being of residents
in training and the safety of the patients they and their
faculty teachers serve. However, we disagree with the need
for federal legislation in this arena. There are private-sector
mechanisms in place to address these important matters, and
these mechanisms have recently been substantially strengthened.
Grounded in the medical profession's recognition and commitment
to supporting and protecting both residents and patients,
these mechanisms have evolved over decades. In fact, they
continue to evolve in order to improve both the quality of
medical education and patient care.
As an organizational member of the Accreditation Council
for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) -- the non-profit entity
that accredits residency programs -- the AAMC has been working
with other member organizations and with the ACGME to strengthen
the Council's duty hour requirements and its effectiveness
in assuring compliance. As you know, the ACGME recently announced
more stringent hour and institutional requirements, along
with improved monitoring and enforcement standards. We believe
this is a strong major step forward and we are pleased that
the ACGME has addressed the concerns raised about excessive
duty hours for medical residents with it's new policies. Certainly,
the key to implementing these new requirements will be adherence
to the strong monitoring and enforcement standards as outlined
by the ACGME.
The AAMC is exercising leadership on this issue with our
member medical schools, teaching hospitals, and academic societies.
We are strongly urging our members to make every effort to
comply with the ACGME standards, and we are planning conferences
and seminars to assist our members in implementing the new
requirements.
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 S. 2614 than does the introduction of legislative
and regulatory strictures into the complex environment of
graduate medical education.
I appreciate your interest in the well being of medical
residents and patient safety. We will continue to work with
our members to ensure they continue to closely supervise the
learning environments of residents and remain committed to
maintaining adequate rest and time-off as high priorities
of their graduate medical education programs. I would be pleased
to discuss these issues with you at any time.
Sincerely,
Jordan J. Cohen, M.D.
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