About PSOPPC

The Patient Safety Organization Privacy Protection Center (PSOPPC) was created by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to support the implementation of the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act PL-109-41(Patient Safety Act) passed by the United States Congress in July 2005. The Patient Safety Act extends legal privilege and confidentiality protections to health care providers who voluntarily submit patient safety concern information to Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs). The PSOs will assist health care providers in developing and implementing patient safety improvement strategies. The Patient Safety Act also authorizes the creation of a Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD). The NPSD will receive non-identifiable information regarding patient safety concerns and perform analysis on the aggregated data. The goal is to create a learning system for quality improvement strategies for PSOs and health care providers.

The PSOPPC will offer a broad set of technical assistance services to PSOs including:

• Education on the format for submitting patient safety concern information to the NPSD
• Coordination of PSO activities including conferences and work groups
• Assistance on rendering patient safety data non-identifiable

For more information about the PSOPPC, please submit a request to the PSOPPC Help Desk.