The New Jersey Supreme Court on Sept. 29 upheld a hospital’s right to maintain the confidentiality of internal review reports written after adverse events, saying confidentiality ensures health care workers will be more forthcoming and candid when errors are made.
The court said the 2004 Patient Safety Act was specifically enacted to grant confidentiality to some internal reports so that health care workers can engage in self-critical analysis, without fear of retribution, in an effort to ensure that mistakes are not repeated.
