Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality August 29, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act) provides for the formation of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), which would collect and analyze confidential information reported by healthcare providers. The Patient Safety Act (at 42 U.S.C. 299b-23) authorizes the collection of this information in a standardized manner, as explained in the related Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in the Federal Register on February 12, 2008: 73 FR 8112-8183. As requested by the Secretary of DHHS, AHRQ has coordinated the development of a set of common definitions and reporting formats (Common Formats) which would facilitate the voluntary collection of patient safety data and reporting of this information to PSOs. The purpose of this notice is to announce the initial release of the Common Formats, Version 0.1 Beta, and the process for development of future versions.