Several health care organizations have asked why they should join CHPSO instead of another federally listed patient safety organization.
One reason is to obtain the federal protections for certain patient safety data. These protections facilitate broad sharing of patient safety information both within and across organizations, which speeds learning and facilitates the elimination of patient safety hazards. As part of this protection, members can collaborate with other hospitals and health care organizations, usually at a Safe Table meeting.
What is a Safe Table?
Safe Table discussions are designed to empower providers to engage in robust, meaningful patient safety and quality improvement activities. These discussions are meant to be open and frank, where attendees can bounce ideas off each other, discuss specific events, and share resources.
By submitting data to CHPSO, hospitals are contributing to the greater understanding of patient safety events that can potentially happen in their organization and elsewhere. By sharing these data with a PSO, de-identified trends and lessons learned can be shared with a wider audience, and facility-specific feedback can be given.
What data hospitals do submit to CHPSO?
The reporting requirements leave it up to the hospital as to what they wish to report. CHPSO recommends that members submit all types of events, from near misses to severe harm. If a member hospital chooses to report solely medication errors, “Medications” is the only event category protected under patient safety work product (PSWP). If a surveyor or external legal counsel wishes to view a surgical event from that hospital, it is not protected by PSWP privilege.
It is helpful for hospitals to outline their reporting structure using a Patient Safety Evaluation System, a document that outlines how the hospital manages its patient safety events; CHPSO has two templates that member hospitals can use.
If interested in joining CHPSO, please visit the Prospective Members section for more details as well as a fee schedule for out-of-state or non-California Hospital Association (CHA) members. Members of CHA receive complimentary membership to CHPSO. The participating agreement and BAA are available on the CHPSO website. For more information, please contact CHPSO at info@chpso.org.