AHRQ releases information about common definitions and reporting formats for PSOs
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
September 3, 2008
The Patient Safety Act of 2005 outlines a means of collecting patient safety data for analysis from all types of healthcare organizations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released in the August 29 Federal Register information about common formats of the data. The information sets out how healthcare organizations should submit data related to patient safety events. These include:
- Incidents—patient safety events that reached the patient, whether or not there was harm
- Near misses or close calls—patient safety events that did not reach the patient
- Unsafe conditions
The AHRQ worked with the Federal Patient Safety Work Group to develop the common formats. The common formats can be found on the Privacy Protection Center Web site.
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