The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005: Provisions and Potential Opportunities

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (Public Law 109-41) addresses the recognized problems of uneven, state-based laws that may or may not protect patient safety efforts, as well as potential gaming of the legal system by attorneys to access safety data for lawsuit purposes. Furthermore, the act addresses the lack of a national strategy and standardization for patient safety efforts. It also extends legal protections for safety and quality activities beyond the hospital setting. Finally, under the provisions of the act, a legal framework has been created to fully engage in patient safety activities and to adopt lessons from other industries to accelerate safety in health care. This scheme provides significant opportunities to promote patient safety. Below, we review the provisions of the act and discuss some opportunities created by it.