Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Madam Chair, first off, I thank Representative Foster and also his acting chief of staff, Samantha Warren, for the great work on this and for working along with two of the people on my staff, Kevin Dawson and Brendan Fulmer. It is this type of collaboration that proves to the American people that we can do things together and do them right.

Everything the gentleman just said, it really rings true with me.

My father was 86 years old when we had to admit him into the hospital for some work to be done. As I was sitting there visiting with him one morning, the nurses brought in his medication.

He said, ``What are you giving me?'' The nurse said, ``Well, this is what the doctors prescribed for you.'' So he said, ``Could I have the chart at the end of the bed, please?'' The nurse said, ``Why would you want that chart?'' He said: ``Because what you are giving me today is something I can't take. If you look at the chart, you will find out that I am right, and what you are giving me is wrong.''

I thought it was amazing that an 86-year-old man knew enough to look at what he was being given without just saying, ``Fine, if you think I should take it, I will take it.''

When we look at what is happening today, we are at a point right now where there is no reason for us to be having these problems.

According to the 2016 study that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Foster) talked about, healthcare executives say that misidentification costs the average healthcare facility $17.4 million per year in denied claims and potential lost revenue.

Without the ability for clinicians to correctly connect a patient with their medical record, medical errors have needlessly occurred and lives have been lost. These are situations that could have been entirely avoidable had patients been able to be accurately identified and matched with their records.

This is a problem that is so dire that one of our Nation's leading patient safety organizations, the ECRI Institute, named patient misidentification among the top 10 threats to patient safety.

There is no reason for that to occur, not today, not in this world, not with what we have available to us.

Passing the Foster-Kelly amendment and removing this outdated ban would help bring our healthcare system into the 21st century, improve patient safety, and save millions of dollars.

I would hope that every Member shares the same concerns that the gentleman and I have and that we make sure to look at what is available to us in the 21st century to make sure these types of mistakes don't happen. We have the ability to do it. Why hold back?

I yield back the balance of my time.

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