Betsy Lehman Center seeks $2.3M pilot to detect preventable hospital harm; estimates large savings from reduced adverse events

Barbara Fain, executive director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means that preventable patient harm is both a human tragedy and a major driver of cost and capacity strain in Massachusetts hospitals, and she asked the committee to fund a pilot deploying automated adverse‑event monitoring in a diverse set of hospitals.

What the center reported Fain said research indicates roughly one in four Massachusetts hospital patients experiences at least one harm event during an admission — roughly 80,000 harm events annually in hospitals alone. She said each hospitalized harm event creates on average about $10,000 in excess claims costs, totaling approximately $1.8 billion in avoidable claims yearly; about a quarter of that is paid by MassHealth, she said.

Why automated monitoring Current internal reporting systems at hospitals capture a small fraction of harm; Fain said automated adverse‑event monitoring scans electronic health records to detect over 100 types of common harm events in near real time, then routes validated findings back to hospitals and to an independent evaluation team. In other states, early adopters uncovered ten times more harm than their internal systems detected and achieved harm reductions averaging 25% (and in some cases substantially more) after deploying automated detection and focused remediation.

Pilot proposal and costs The Betsy Lehman Center requested funding for an 18‑month pilot across 6–8 Massachusetts hospitals. The center said it has procured a leading vendor but needs $2.3 million in one‑time (non‑permanent) funding to cover the vendors' contracted services in the pilot year; the center’s full FY26 request is just over $6 million (most of that figure is the pass‑through pilot cost). Fain said the pilot will include an independent evaluation and agreed data‑sharing and publication terms with participating hospitals so the state can assess outcomes openly; she said the investment is expected to pay for itself through reduced harm, shorter lengths of stay, fewer downstream claims and reduced liability payouts.

Legislative questions Committee members asked whether the pilot budget is included in the governor’s request; Fain said it is not and requested the additional $2.3 million. Members asked about the types of hospitals sought for the pilot; Fain said the center is seeking geographic and system diversity: academic centers, safety‑net hospitals and community hospitals.

Center's conclusion Fain argued that better detection and transparent sharing of validated harm events are prerequisites for systemwide safety gains and that the pilot is a relatively modest investment that can produce measurable patient and fiscal benefits quickly.