Summary
This article provides an overview of recent legislative developments intended to create a new independent board within the Department of Health and Human Services to improve patient safety in the United States of America.
Content
On 8 March 2024, two members of the United States House of Representatives, Nanette Barragán and Dr Michael Burgess, members of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, reintroduced the National Patient Safety Board Act (H.R. 7591). This legislation would establish a National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) – a nonpunitive, collaborative and independent board within the Department of Health and Human Services to address safety in healthcare, modelled in part after successful entities in the transportation industry.
The NPSB is intended to interface with the US Department of Health and Human Services agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and private entities on patient safety issues.[1] Modelled after the National Transportation Safety Board and the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, the NPSB would:
- Identify harm: The NPSB would identify and anticipate major sources of harm and not require additional data submission by healthcare providers.
- Conduct studies: The NPSB would first identify significant widespread harm, and then focus on understanding the pre-cursors and solutions to major harm sources, as opposed to conducting studies of all individual incidents.
- Recommend solutions: The NPSB would create recommendations and autonomous solutions to prevent patient safety events.
The National Patient Safety Board Act is endorsed by members of the National Patient Safety Board Advocacy Coalition, a group of healthcare organisations, provider associations, businesses, nonprofit organisations and consumer advocacy groups calling for the creation of a NPSB.[2]
Related reading
You can find out more about the campaign for a National Patient Safety Board in a blog on the hub by Olivia Lounsbury, Committee Lead for the National Patient Safety Oversight committee of Patients for Patient Safety US. In this blog she outlines why the NPSB is needed and demonstrates the importance of engaging patients and families in its design and processes.[3]
More details about the campaign itself, and if relevant how to contact your US House member’s office in regards to this, can be found on the National Patient Safety Board Advocacy Coalition website.
References
- Nanette Diaz Barragán, Reps. Barragán and Burgess Introduce National Patient Safety Board Act, 8 March 2024.
- National Patient Safety Board. About. Last accessed 12 March 2024.
- Olivia Lounsbury. Now is not soon enough: Patients, families and the general public have much to gain from the US National Patient Safety Board Act. Patient Safety Learning, 20 April 2023.
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