Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) serve as independent, external experts who can assist providers in analyzing data that a provider voluntarily chooses to report to the PSO. Providers that work with a PSO can benefit from the ability of PSOs to aggregate data from all of the providers reporting to the PSO, enabling PSOs to accumulate large numbers of patient safety events essential for identifying patterns and trends, and to facilitate the identification of underlying causes of infrequent, but often tragic, adverse events.
When a health care provider, including a multi-facility health care system, works with a PSO, it can collect, manage, and analyze data within a protected legal environment, both within and across states, without the fear that information will be used against those providers, thus removing significant barriers that can deter providers' participation in patient safety and quality improvement initiatives.
To help providers select an appropriate PSO, ´óÏóAPPhas published a summary, "Choosing a Patient Safety Organization" (, 1 MB).
