The Patient Safety Organization (PSO) program was developed by Congress in 2005 in response to the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report “To Err is Human.” This report shined a light on the concerning number of preventable death and severe harm stemming from medical errors. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 established PSOs as organizations with federal-level privileges and confidentiality protections, with the overall aim of increasing adverse event and near miss reporting and promoting shared learning to enhance nation-wide quality and safety.

The main activity of PSOs is to work with healthcare providers and organizations to provide patient safety activities. Patient safety activities include the collection and analysis of patient safety work product, support in the development of a patient safety evaluation system, and sharing the lessons learned from near miss and harm events under the confidentiality and privilege protections from the the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act.

The federal Patient Safety Organization program is managed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Learn more about PSOs by visiting AHRQ’s website here: https://pso.ahrq.gov/

As a federally listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO), healthcare providers who sign a written agreement with FHCQ receive privilege and confidentiality protections under federal law. These protections encourage healthcare facilities to report patient safety information and collaborate in learning from adverse events to reduce patient harm.

Benefits of FHCQ membership include:

Protected patient safety data: When a provider submits “patient safety work product” to a PSO, this data is privileged and confidential. These protections are borderless, where this PSO information protection applies to all U.S. states and territories. Patient safety work product is defined by AHRQ as “…any data, reports, records, memoranda, analyses (such as root cause analyses), or written or oral statements (or copies of any of this material) which could improve patient safety, health care quality, or health care outcomes; and are developed by a PSO for the conduct of patient safety activities.” This includes documents submitted for CRP Screening and Certification.

Report patient safety events: Patient safety events can be submitted to FHCQ without fear of legal discovery. Reporting these events plays a key role in fostering a Just Culture and a healthcare system that prioritizes safety. Learning from adverse events supports preventing these events from recurrence, and reporting the event is the first step.

Compliance with CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure: Organizations who can attest to their use of Communication and Resolution Programs may receive a financial incentive from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Review Panel can examine your CRP process, provide personalized feedback, and develop recommendations to ensure compliance with CMS for free.

Shared learning: CRP and patient safety information shared with FHCQ is deidentified, summarized, and shared widely for organizations to gain insight into the types of adverse events that are happening, their underlying causes, the steps that were taken to reach reconciliation with the patient/family, and prevent recurrence of the event.

For more information about FHCQ, patient safety organizations, or our CRP work, please contact crp@qualityhealth.org.