In the Feb. 12 issue of the Federal Register, the Department of Health and Human Services published a proposed regulation to implement certain aspects of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. The proposed regulations establish a framework by which hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers may voluntarily report information to patient safety organizations (PSOs), on a privileged and confidential basis, for analysis of patient safety events. The proposed regulations also outline the requirements that entities must meet to become PSOs, and establish the confidentiality protections for the information that is assembled and developed by providers and PSOs. Comments are due by April 14, 2008.
The publication of the proposed rule appears to be in response to a Jan. 17 letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy to the Government Accountability Office, reported here earlier. Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, asked that the GAO investigate why regulations implementing the Patient Safety Act, which would establish PSOs, had still not been fully implemented. Download the proposed rule.
