Hospitals Urged to Develop Rapid-Response Teams

None of this is lost on state and federal legislators who have drafted—or are drafting—legislation to make data on hospital medical errors open to public scrutiny, Mr. Wade noted.

“Why haven't hospitals taken the lead to do these things themselves? We're trying to accomplish these things, but it takes time,” Mr. Wade said, pointing to the Hospital Quality Alliance sponsored by the AHA, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Federation of American Hospitals.

“We sat down 2 years ago and decided to begin to put data in front of the public,” he said. The resulting Web site,

www.hospitalcompare.com