On July 29, 2005, the President signed the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act, 42 U.S.C. sections 299b-21 to 299b-26) into law. The Patient Safety Act amended Title IX of the Public Health Service Act to provide for the improvement of patient safety and to reduce the incidence of events that adversely affect patient safety by authorizing the creation of patient safety organizations (PSOs). PSOs work with providers to improve quality and safety through the collection and analysis of aggregated, confidential data on patient safety events.
View the Patient Safety Act in an on-line version of the United States Code (42 U.S.C. sections 299b-21 to 299b-26).
The Patient Safety Act requires the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in consultation with the Director of AHRQ, to prepare a report on effective strategies for reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety. The report includes measures determined appropriate by the Secretary to encourage the appropriate use of effective strategies for reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety, including use in federally funded programs.
As required by the Patient Safety Act, a draft of the report was made available for public comment and submitted for review to the Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
The original Notice of Opportunity to Comment appeared in the Federal Register on December 16, 2020. The Notice extending the public comment period was published in the Federal Register on March 18, 2021. The public comment period closed on April 5, 2021. Review of the Draft Report by NAM was roughly concurrent with the public comment period. NAM published its report, entitled "Peer Review of a Report on Strategies to Improve Patient Safety," on April 19, 2021.
The Final Report, "Strategies to Improve Patient Safety: Final Report to Congress Required by the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005" was submitted to Congress in November 2021.