The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority developed the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System, known as PA-PSRS (pronounced "PAY-sirs"), a secure, web-based system that permits healthcare facilities to submit reports of what Act 13 of 2002, Act 30 of 2006 and Act 52 of 2007 defines as "Serious Events" and "Incidents." Statewide mandatory reporting through PA-PSRS went into effect on June 28, 2004 for hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities and birthing centers. In 2006, legislation was signed into law requiring that abortion facilities that performed over 100 procedures annually must also report Serious Events and Incidents through PA-PSRS. In 2007, hospitals and nursing homes were charged with reporting healthcare-associated infections (HAI) as Serious Events. Hospitals report HAI's to the Authority, the Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council (PHC4) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Health Safety Network (NHSN). Nursing homes began reporting healthcare-associated infections to the Authority and the Department of Health in June 2009.
The Authority analyzes the collected data to identify trends and recommend changes in healthcare practices and procedures that may be instituted to reduce the number and severity of future serious events and incidents.
More than 525 healthcare facilities are subject to Act 13 of 2002 and Act 30 of 2006 requirements. Over 700 nursing homes must report HAIs to the Authority and the Department of Health. The Authority will receive and tabulate all reports and analyze the data to identify trends and suggest improvements to enhance patient safety. In addition, the Authority will provide individual facilities with detailed reports analyzing data related to their specific facilities or to certain geographic regions and the state as a whole. Facility managers are able to use these reports for their internal quality improvement and patient safety activities.
Because Act 13 of 2002 contains strong confidentiality and whistleblower protections, all information submitted through PA-PSRS is confidential, and no information about individual facilities or providers will be made public.
PA-PSRS was developed under contract with ECRI, a Pennsylvania-based independent, non-profit health services research agency, in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a leading international, information technology firm, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), also a Pennsylvania-based, non-profit health research organization.
The resulting PA-PSRS system is fully owned by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.
