CODIFYING COMMON LAW 603
surprisingly, both NJHA and ATLA-NJ found Christy’s holding
acceptable and lobbied for its inclusion in the PSA before
agreeing to publicly support the legislation. All sides professed
satisfaction. Elizabeth Ryan, General Counsel of NJHA,
referring to the bill as “landmark legislation,” thanked the
committee for “preserving” Christy, a case “very important to
the provider community.”^135 Drew Britcher of ATLA-NJ
likewise applauded Christy’s codification.^136
That the PSA secured the endorsement of two oft-adverse
interest groups was not lost on the bill’s drafters. Sitting
between Ms. Ryan and Mr. Britcher, sponsor Senator Joseph
Vitale proclaimed that “we’re here together in accord over this
bill.”^137 Clifton Lacy, Commissioner of the Department of
Health and Senior Services, emphasized the need for additional
protections, citing to a National Association of State Health
Policy report indicating that, of the twenty-one states with
legislation mandating the reporting of medical errors, New
Jersey was alone in not also legislating a peer-review
privilege.^138 Commissioner Lacy asserted that “the focus on
finding who did wrong rather than why things go wrong is the
major obstacle in improving safety across this country,”^139 and
commended the bill for “shield[ing] self-critical analysis from
discovery but maintain[ing as] discoverable all that is now
discoverable.”^140 The PSA passed both houses soon thereafter,
was signed into law by Governor Jim McGreevey on April 27,
2004, and went into effect on October 24 of that year.^141
(^135) Legislative Hearing on Patient Safety Act Before the Gen. Assemb.
Comm. on Health, Human Servs. & Senior Citizens, 211th Leg., 2004–2005
Sess., at 7 (N.J. 2004) [hereinafter Assembly Hearing].
(^136) See id. at 22–23 (praising the “preservation of the discoverability...
reconfirmed recently by our courts,” which “draw[s] an important balance
between the absolutely vital aspect of trying to identify medical error...
while at the same time recognizing... [that] the patient does need to know
what has happened to them”).
(^137) Id. at 2.
(^138) Id. at 19–20.
(^139) Id. at 15.
(^140) Id. at 19.
(^141) See Press Release, N.J. Gov. Jim McGreevey, McGreevey Signs