Over the past six months, New Hampshire’s House and Senate have worked extraordinarily hard to develop an innovative method for resolving medical injury claims. This system — Senate Bill 406, the “early offer” alternative — is an exciting new program that would enable patients who have suffered a negative outcome to seek fast and fair resolution.

Individuals who participate in the program could receive a settlement as quickly as four to six months from when their claim is made, and they would be able to do so without going through a long and arduous litigation process.

Most importantly, the early offer program is optional. It is a voluntary system — something an individual could opt to participate in, or, if preferred, simply go the traditional route instead.

I strongly believe that the early offer system will create a more amicable process to resolving these types of cases. Instead of engaging in a hostile and combative process that can be lengthy and drawn out, early offer seeks to bring patients and doctors together to work out an efficient resolution that will benefit both parties.

Simply put, this process gets away from blame and focuses on helping resolve the patient’s claim. After all, individuals become doctors and nurses to help people — not hurt them. They’ve been trained to care for their patients and to do their best. Early offer will enable the system to resolve these disputes to the benefit of everyone involved.

Additionally, the early offer system will offer the opportunity to compress the amount of time that an individual has to wait for the resources to be able to live. Waiting four years — the average time it takes to settle a malpractice case through the current system — is just not an option for most people as everyday bills and the stress of litigation mount. We owe it to patients to provide an avenue for relief quickly so that they can support themselves and their families.

New Hampshire has the opportunity to be a leader and pass this innovative legislation that will have a real and positive effect on many of the people in our state. Let’s embrace that opportunity and implement this optional program. I ask the members of our House and Senate to consider how the early offer program could benefit patients. Please vote to override the governor’s veto of SB 406. The residents of our state deserve to have this choice.

Doug Dean is president and CEO of Elliot Health System.