The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act) authorized the creation of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) to improve the quality and safety of U.S. health care delivery. The Patient Safety Act encourages clinicians and health care organizations (Providers) to voluntarily report and share quality and patient safety information without fear of legal discovery. The PSO-Provider relationship fosters a culture of safety by establishing strong Federal confidentiality and privilege protections for information assembled and developed by provider organizations, physicians, and other clinicians for deliberations and analyses regarding quality and safety. The information collected is called the Patient Safety Work Product (PSWP), which means any data, reports, records, memoranda, analyses, or written or oral statements which could improve patient safety, health care quality, or health care outcomes.

The Biomedical Research and Education Foundation (BREF) is designated as a PSO. BREF provides services to Providers to develop and manage short-term or long-term data capture programs in order to collect, identify and analyze the PSWP and reduce the risks and hazards associated with patient care. BREF has the capacity to develop or assist with the creation of a program- or project-specific common format to collect PSWP, harbor and protect the data from legal discovery, and run queries in the database for data trends and outcomes analysis. BREF is also connected with a large number of outstanding medical, academic, and consulting professionals who can offer guidance and expertise to any project.

 

For additional information, please contact:
Dana M. Hancock, M.S.
PSO Manager
609-505-5660
Email: dhancock@brefnet.org