One of the primary activities of NCPS is to work with healthcare providers in a variety of settings where care is provided and help them with conducting patient safety activities. NCPS does this by assisting providers with developing patient safety evaluation systems, through which their patient safety work product can be analyzed and shared within their organizations and with NCPS under the confidentiality and privilege protections of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act.
A patient safety evaluation system (PSES) is the collection, management, or analysis of safety-related information for reporting to or by a patient safety organization. A PSES includes all the ways in which a healthcare organization reports, investigates, documents, analyzes and communicates information about safety events and their efforts to improve safety.
A PSES could include information in and from, for example:
- Quality and safety committees, discussions, minutes, actions.
- Root cause analyses and event investigations.
- Peer review activities.
- Safety huddles and debriefs.
- Hallway conversations, emails, and any meetings related to patient safety events and quality improvement.
- Quality report cards and score cards.
- Incident reports, reporting systems and reporting solutions.
A PSES for an organization can be outlined and defined by its policies and procedures. NCPS has templates that can be modified for its members to use.
