AHRQ Updates Data Standards for Patient Safety Organizations

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 aims to improve the safety and quality of health care in the U.S. through voluntary reporting by clinicians and health care organizations of patient safety and quality information without fear of legal discovery.  The basic idea is that if every health care provider shares information about incidences in which patients were adversely affected, we can aggregate and analyze these experiences to gain more insight into how to improve care. 

The Act charged the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with creating standards for data submitted to Patient Safety Organizations.  Without data standards, aggregating and analyzing the data will be as difficult as comparing the proverbial apple to an orange.

AHRQ initiated standards development process by issuing and working with Version 0.1 Beta, but now has announced in the Federal Register the release of Common Formats Version 1.0.  The Common Formats span definitions and reporting formats and relate to all patient safety concerns, including healthcare-associated infections, falls and pressure ulcers.  This is an important step forward in realizing the goals of the Act.