Patient safety organization

A patient safety organization (PSO) is an organization that seeks to improve medical care by advocating for the reduction of medical errors. Common functions of patient safety organizations include health care data collection, reporting and analysis on health care outcomes, educating providers and patients, raising funds to improve health care, and advocating for safety-oriented policy changes. In the United States, the term typically refers only to PSOs that have been formally recognized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and listed with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A federally-designated PSO differs from a typical PSO in that it provides health care providers in the U.S. privilege and confidentiality protections in exchange for efforts to improve patient safety.

In the 1990s, reports in several countries revealed a staggering number of patient injuries and deaths each year due to avoidable errors and deficiencies in health care, among them adverse events and complications arising from poor infection control. In the United States, a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine called for a broad national effort to prevent these events, including the establishment of patient safety centers, expanded reporting of adverse events, and development of safety programs in healthcare organizations. Although many PSOs are funded and run by governments, others have sprung from private entities such as industry, professional, health insurance providers, and consumer groups.