Indiana Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh plan to introduce legislation that would require hospitals to report on meeting safety measures aimed at minimizing errors in giving prescription medication to patients.

Lugar, a Republican, and Bayh, a Democrat, plan to introduce the legislation in November, once Congress is back in session. The recent deaths of three premature babies at an Indianapolis hospital prompted the congressmen to draft the bill, said Meghan Keck, communications director for Bayh’s office in Washington, D.C.

“I think it’s always a good thing in Washington to see Republicans and Democrats working together, especially when you see the partisan atmosphere that is in Washington today,” Keck said. “But senators Bayh and Lugar have a long history of working together.”

The legislation calls for the secretary of Health and Human Services to work with national medical organizations to adopt new safety measures, which would limit human error when prescribing medication.

The infants who died were given an adult dosage of herapin, an anti-blood clotting drug.

“So really this is a larger problem that deserves attention and is a cause of concern,” said Emily Krueger, deputy press secretary for Lugar’s Washington, D.C., office, “and it’s our hope that after this bill is introduced ... that it’s something that could be passed before the end of the year.”

Several safety measures could help hospitals reduce human error, according to a news release issued by the senators. The release suggests electronic prescribing to prevent errors, bar codes that would contain individual dosages and specialized intravenous pumps that alert nurses if a dose of medicine exceeds established limits.

The senators hope that the bill could be passed shortly after introduction, and the measures would go into effect by October 2007, Krueger said.

— Austin Arceo writes for The Tribune Star in Terre Haute, a CNHI sister publication.