New recommendations to the White House on patient safety

September 14, 2023

Dr. Tejal Gandhi, MPH, CPPS

Several initiatives are underway at the national level to drive progress in patient safety that we want to make sure our healthcare partners are aware of and prepared for. There are implications for and expectations of organizations like yours. This letter is aimed at clarifying those implications, while also specifying ways in which we, at Press Ganey, can help.

On September 7, 2023, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report that describes “A Transformational Effort on Patient Safety.”

PCAST consists of distinguished individuals from sectors outside the Federal Government, who advise the President on policy matters where the understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key. At Press Ganey, we’ll monitor how the federal government might incorporate insights from this report, which could range from federal agencies adopting certain recommended measures, to updating existing guidelines, to initiating new programs.

Beyond immediate policy implications, PCAST reports play a pivotal role in highlighting pressing issues and increasing public awareness. It will be insightful to observe how the White House and relevant agencies harness this momentum to engage with stakeholders and foster broader public discourse.

In addition, the National Action Plan for Patient Safety (NAP) was released in 2020 by the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety (comprising 27 national organizations, including five federal agencies) with recommendations and strategies to accelerate progress in patient safety. Subsequently, in 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched the National Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety as a public-private collaboration to improve both patient and workforce safety, leveraging the foundational areas in the National Action Plan.

All of these national efforts are intended to help healthcare organizations accelerate their progress in patient safety and reduce patient and workforce harm. This is critically important due to declines in safety seen during the pandemic, as well as recent data showing that, while there's been some progress over the past 20 years, substantial harm is still occurring.

The recently released PCAST report has four main recommendations (with 11 sub-recommendations) for health systems:

Establish and maintain federal leadership for the improvement of patient safety as a national priority
Ensure that patients receive evidence-based practices for preventing harm and addressing risks
Partner with patients, and reduce disparities in medical errors and adverse outcomes
Accelerate research and deployment of practices, technologies, and exemplar systems of safe care

The sub-recommendations include strategies related to harm measurement and public reporting, adoption of evidence-based best practices, workforce safety, safety culture, patient engagement and measuring patient perceptions of safety, optimizing patient safety organizations, and leveraging innovative technology. We would be happy to arrange a meeting with our safety thought leaders for a more detailed discussion of these recommendations and their implications for you.

The PCAST report also offers a specific recommendation that AHRQ lead the development and validation of new questions focused on racial/ethnic bias and patient safety in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey. Press Ganey already has custom questions in both of these domains and has demonstrated a strong connection between perceptions of safety and “Likelihood to Recommend” (LTR).

At Press Ganey, we have unparalleled patient safety expertise as well as robust data analytics and machine learning capabilities, with a long history of partnering with organizations for safety and reliability transformation and harm reduction. Press Ganey is committed to advancing your patient safety efforts with a wide range of products and solutions that can help organizations achieve these PCAST recommendations, as well as the recommendations in the NAP.