You Are Here: PSO Home > Network of Patient Safety Databases

Network of Patient Safety Databases

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) administers the provisions of the Patient Safety Act and the Patient Safety Rule dealing with PSO operations. As data become available from PSOs, a Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD) will receive, analyze, and report on de-identified and aggregated patient safety event information. The goal of the NPSD is to facilitate aggregation and analyses of patient safety event information to help reduce adverse events and improve health care quality.

Who will report data to NPSD?

PSOs, providers, and other entities will voluntarily contribute de-identified patient safety work product to the NPSD. To allow aggregation of comparable data, the NPSD will employ common definitions and reporting formats for patient safety events. These interoperable terms are referred to as the Common Formats. To provide PSOs with resources to de-identify patient safety event information prior to sending the information to the NPSD, AHRQ established the PSO Privacy Protection Center (PSO PPC). Use of the de-identified data is discussed in the Common Formats Overview.