In an effort to develop creative solutions to medical liability in the state, the Oregon Legislature created the Early Discussion and Resolution (EDR) program, which was first available to Oregonians in 2014. EDR promotes open communication with patients and families when serious patient harm or death results from medical care to advance progress toward two important objectives:

• Minimize the need to escalate medical harm events to the legal system by addressing the needs of healthcare providers, facilities, and patients and families to exchange information and discuss the possible resolution of specific harm events.

• Cultivate the culture of safety necessary for healthcare providers and facilities to learn and improve their systems of care, reducing the events that drive medical malpractice.

Not only was Oregon’s EDR law one of the first in the country to encourage a more transparent approach for responding to medical harm, it remains the only law that allows patients to request a conversation with the healthcare provider or facility involved in the event they experienced.

So, How Are Things Going So Far?

In a recent report covering the first five years of EDR in Oregon (July 2014 to June 2019), the Governor-appointed Task Force on Resolution of Adverse Healthcare Incidents looked at the innovative program to understand its effects. They also reviewed evidence from patient safety literature related to communication following medical harm, and, perhaps most importantly, they considered feedback collected directly from the stakeholders eligible for EDR across the state. 

Read the task force’s report, EDR: Accelerating Adoption of a Culture of Safety in Oregon, to learn more about:

• What EDR stakeholders think about communication following medical harm events.

• How infrastructure drives how healthcare providers and facilities respond to medical harm events and what this looks like in Oregon.

• Promising research that Oregon providers and facilities can look to as they develop systems to respond proactively to medical harm events.

View the infographic EDR Use in Oregon (June 2014-July 2019)

Read the full report EDR: Accelerating Adoption of a Culture of Safety in Oregon