Senator Kemp Hannon, chair of the Senate Health Committee, announced legislation has been signed into law to protect thousands of patients undergoing surgical procedures in physicians' offices.

The legislation will provide for appropriate patient safety standards regarding whether a surgery can be performed in a hospital, ambulatory surgery center or a doctor's office. Currently, surgeries performed in doctor's offices are not regulated in New York State. Practitioners are not currently bound by the same credentialing and safety requirements as hospitals and are not required to report adverse outcomes.

Senator Hannon said, "This legislation furthers the goal of providing quality health care services in New York State by ensuring office-based surgeries are provided in safe environments by qualified individuals. I am pleased with the result."

The new law:

- requires office-based surgery be performed by physicians in a setting that has obtained and maintained accreditation from an entity approved by the state Health Commissioner.

- requires that operating in an un-accredited setting would constitute professional medical misconduct.

- requires physicians to report adverse office-based surgery events including patient deaths and unplanned hospital admissions within one business day to the Department of Health Patient Safety Center.

- requires that individual reports be considered confidential and not be subject to the Freedom of Information Law or discovery.

Nationwide, the number of surgical procedures performed in doctors' offices instead of hospitals has more than doubled in the last decade - with nearly 10 million surgical procedures performed annually in office-based settings since 2000. The procedures being performed are increasingly complicated surgical and invasive procedures.

The legislation is based on recommendations made by the Committee on Quality Assurance in Office-Based Surgery, established in 1997 by the New York State Public Health Council. The 18-member committee consisted of consumer advocates and medical specialists.