[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 30 (Monday, August 1, 2005)]
[Pages 1227-1229]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 
2005

July 29, 2005

    Welcome. Good morning. In a few moments, I'll have the honor of 
signing the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. This 
bill is a critical step toward our goal of ensuring top-quality, 
patient-driven health care for all Americans.

[[Page 1228]]

    With this law, we'll be able to obtain more accurate information 
about medical treatments. And by providing doctors with information 
about what treatments work and what treatments cause problems, we will 
reduce medical errors that injure and cause the deaths of thousands of 
Americans each year.
    I commend the Members of Congress for their hard work in passing 
this piece of legislation. This has been a productive week for the 
United States Senate and the House of Representatives. I'm looking 
forward to signing an energy bill that will encourage conservation, 
increase domestic production, and help reduce our dependence on foreign 
oil. I'm looking forward to signing a highway bill that will strengthen 
our transportation infrastructure and improve the safety of our roads 
and create jobs.
    I appreciate the House and the Senate for passing the Central 
American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement that will level the 
playing field for America's goods as well as promote democracy in our 
hemisphere. All these bills are good bills. They're good for the people 
of this country. And I appreciate their hard work in getting them to my 
desk.
    I want to thank the Secretary of Health and Human Services for 
joining us, Mike Leavitt. I appreciate Senator Bill Frist, the majority 
leader, Dr. Bill Frist. [Laughter] I want to thank Committee Chairman 
Mike Enzi, Senator Judd Gregg, and Ted Kennedy and Jim Jeffords for 
their good work in the United States Senate on this piece of 
legislation. I appreciate my friend from Texas, Joe Barton--Congressman 
Joe Barton and Nathan Deal and Mike Bilirakis for joining me here today 
as I sign this piece of legislation.
    I want to thank Dr. Edward Hill, who is the president of the 
American Medical Association, straight out of Mississippi. [Laughter] I 
appreciate Dr. Sophia Smith, who is the Children's National Medical 
Center, Dr. Janis Orlowski, who is the senior vice president of the 
Washington Hospital Center, and Susan Mintz--Suzanne Mintz, the 
president of the National Family Caregivers Association. Thank you all 
for coming. I also want to welcome our professionals who are here with 
us today.
    The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act will help ensure that 
Americans continue to benefit from the greatest medical system in the 
world. To maintain the highest standards of care, doctors and nurses 
must be able to exchange information about problems and solutions. Yet 
in recent years, many doctors have grown afraid to discuss their 
practices because they worry that the information they provide will be 
used against them in a lawsuit.
    This bill will help solve that problem. This is a commonsense law 
that gives legal protections to health professionals who report their 
practices to patient safety organizations. By providing critical 
information about medical procedures, doctors and nurses can help others 
learn from their experiences. That's why I said it's a commonsense law. 
By making essential information more available across America, we will 
help ensure that patients benefit from the best medical treatment, no 
matter where they live. That seems to make sense to me.
    This bill builds on other commonsense reforms we're making to the 
American health care system. By providing a new Medicare prescription 
drug benefit, we're giving seniors more choices and helping them get the 
medicine they need. By making health savings accounts more broadly 
available, we're helping more Americans own and control their own health 
coverage. By increasing funding for community health centers, we're 
helping the poor and the uninsured get the quality health care they 
deserve and need.
    We'll continue working to improve our health care system. To make it 
easier for employers to offer coverage to their workers, we must allow 
small businesses to join together to buy insurance at the same discounts 
that big businesses can do. To reduce costs and improve care, we must 
harness the power of information technology to computerize health 
records.
    And we've got to stop the frivolous lawsuits that are running up the 
cost of medicine and driving good professionals out of this important 
profession. We need medical liability reform now. The bill I sign today 
is an example of people coming together to do what's right for the 
country.

[[Page 1229]]

    Again, I want to thank the Members of Congress who are here. It is 
now my honor to sign this good bill into law.

Note: The President spoke at 10:09 a.m. in Room 450 in the Eisenhower 
Executive Office Building. S. 544, approved July 29, was assigned Public 
Law No. 109-41.