HHS Proposes Rule To Begin Adopting Patient Safety and Quality Act

HHS has published a proposed rule to adopt a provision of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 that involves the creation of patient safety organizations and a network of databases to collect and analyze reports of medical errors. Under the rule, published in the Feb. 12 issue of Federal Register, public and private not-for-profit organizations are eligible for certification as patient safety organizations through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The organizations will not be entitled to federal funding. The law requires HHS to:

Facilitate the creation of a network of databases to collect, aggregate and analyze submitted reports of medical errors or near-errors;

Adopt standard formats for reporting information to the databases; and

Make public analysis of regional and national statistics and trends via annual reports from patient safety organizations .

The proposed rule establishes the authorities, processes and rules necessary to implement the act. It also outlines confidentiality protections for submitted data to facilitate participation by hospitals and other providers. HHS will publish a separate proposed rule to begin developing the network of patient safety databases. To view the HHS news release on this proposed rule that includes a direct link to the full rule along with other background information go to http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/02/20080212a.html