Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 243 CMR - BOARD OF REGISTRATION IN MEDICINE › Title 243 CMR 3.00 - The Establishment Of And Participation In Qualified Patient Care Assessment Programs, Pursuant To M.G.L. c. 112, Section 5, and M.G.L. c. 111, Section 203 › Section 3.01 - Scope and Purpose

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
(1)
			 The Board of Registration in Medicine, in promulgating
			 243 CMR 3.00, has as its
			 primary goal, ensuring that patients in both institutional and office settings
			 receive optimal care. Accordingly,
			 243 CMR 3.00 is intended to
			 assist the physicians and health care institutions of the Commonwealth in their
			 efforts to identify problems in practice before they occur and to put in place
			 preventive measures designed to minimize or eliminate substandard practice.
			 This enhancement of patient care assessment will be accomplished through the
			 strengthening and formalizing of programs of credentialing, quality assurance,
			 utilization review, risk management and peer review in institutions and by
			 assuring that these functions are thoroughly integrated and overseen by the
			 institutions' corporate and physician leadership.
			 243 CMR 3.00 contemplates
			 active self-scrutiny and reporting of adverse incidents in in-patient and
			 out-patient settings to permit individual physicians, institutions and the
			 Board to recognize patterns requiring corrective action. Further,
			 243 CMR 3.00 encourages the
			 creation and adoption of minimum standards of practice in areas in which expert
			 consensus is reached in order to permit physicians to establish and utilize
			 touchstones of practice, to allow the Board and other tribunals to determine
			 with a high degree of predictability when a practice pattern falls within
			 consensus standards, and to guarantee that all patients will be treated in
			 accordance with generally accepted principles of care. Achieving these goals
			 will decrease avoidable adverse patient outcomes and will contribute to the
			 maintenance of an atmosphere of mutual trust between physicians and their
			 patients. In so doing,
			 243 CMR 3.00 will
			 concomitantly achieve the reduction or stabilization of the frequency, amount
			 and cost of claims against physicians and institutions that was the goal of the
			 legislature in M.G.L. c. 111, § 203, and M.G.L. c. 112, §§ 5
			 through 5K.
To assure free self-examination by physicians and institutions,
				the legislature provided extensive safeguards of confidentiality, immunity and
				privilege for both internal reviews and reports to the Board. It is the
				explicit intent of
				243 CMR 3.00 that such
				safeguards be strengthened and extended to the extent permitted by law.
In establishing these patient care assessment requirements, the
				Board of Registration in Medicine intends to formalize and enhance the
				functions of committees many or all institutions may already have in place.
				Such committees include, for example, groups responsible for efforts usually
				designated as Quality Assurance, Utilization Review, Risk Management, and
				Credentialing. Wherever already in existence, such committees need not be
				replaced or removed, so long as in the aggregate they henceforth provide, at
				minimum, for all of the functions enumerated by the Board of Registration in
				Medicine herein as the functions of a Qualified Patient Care Assessment
				Program.
A further purpose of
				243 CMR 3.00 is to help the
				Board satisfy its data collection and disciplinary responsibilities and to
				assist health care providers in the fulfillment of their reporting obligations
				under M.G.L. c. 112, § 5F. Finally,
				243 CMR 3.00 is in further
				fulfillment of the Board's obligation to "adopt rules and regulations governing
				the practice of medicine in order to promote the public health, welfare and
				safety," pursuant to M.G.L. c. 112, § 5.
(2)
								243 CMR 3.00 is effective
			 February 1, 2012.