Sufferers for Affected person Security US. Picture courtesy of PFPS US
A brand new affected person advocacy group has been aggressively pushing policymakers in Washington to deal with affected person security.
The group, Sufferers For Affected person Security US (PFPS US), was based in June 2021 by 10 skilled advocates who say authorities and business have dropped the ball on efforts to make care safer.
Threats such because the pandemic, well being disparities and the opioid disaster “shouldn’t be competing with security on the federal well being agenda,” one of many founders, Martin Hatlie, told an audience at Health Journalism 2023.
Sufferers for Affected person Security US isn’t a family title like Shoppers Union (now Shopper Reviews), which ran the Secure Sufferers Venture from 2003 to 2018. That effort promoted reforms targeted on public reporting and supplier accountability, together with landmark measures within the 2010 Inexpensive Care Act.
One other distinction is that PFPS US says it selectively welcomes ties with supplier teams, whereas the Secure Affected person Venture eschewed contributions from business.
It stays to be seen whether or not PFPS US’s work will obtain lasting coverage wins, however it has made inroads with the Biden administration and invigorated a affected person security motion that appeared to be waning.
Listed here are some issues to know in regards to the group.
Formation and philosophy
One of many founders, Sue Sheridan, mentioned she obtained offended on the scant point out of affected person security in a draft strategic plan for the National Quality Forum, a big not-for-profit membership group that promotes affected person protections. She mentioned she reached out to fellow “lifetime warriors” in affected person security who had seen comparable lapses elsewhere.
They fashioned a department of the World Well being Group’s Patients for Patient Safety program, which Hatlie and Sheridan had helped to develop. This system goals to convey affected person voices into nationwide policymaking and to advertise collaboration amongst activists of various nations.
Sheridan mentioned the WHO’s Global Patient Safety Action Plan requires an expansive function for sufferers and households as watchdogs together with “lively participation” by authorities, which the USA’ personal National Action Plan doesn’t.
Funding and conflicts of curiosity
I didn’t discover a record of contributors on PFPS US’s web site, so I requested Hatlie and Sheridan to offer some details about its insurance policies.
They mentioned that all the founders contributed cash to begin the group. Based on LinkedIn, some founders have relationships with well being care supplier organizations as consultants or workers.
PFPS US additionally accepts cash from its partner organizations and particular person supporters, Sheridan mentioned. (Sheridan mentioned the group took a donation from the Gordon and Betty Moore Basis to create a webinar sequence. The Moore basis can be an AHCJ funder.)
Sheridan mentioned that PFPS US’s agenda is “affected person generated,” including that its accomplice organizations should help its mission and, within the case of personal entities, the WHO’s affected person security motion plan.
Nonetheless, a few of its monetary backers may have vested pursuits by which insurance policies are pursued and the way they’re crafted and executed. PFPS US’s companions embody the MedStar Institute, which is affiliated with MedStar Well being, a Maryland-based hospital system; the Affected person Security Motion Basis, which was based by medical know-how mogul Joe Kiani; and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents pediatricians.
PFPS US’s practices distinction with the strict conflict-of-interest safeguards of the Secure Affected person Venture, which did not settle for donations–and even lunch cash–from doctor or hospital organizations, mentioned Lisa McGiffert, its former director. McGiffert is now the president of one other advocacy group, the Affected person Security Motion Community, which she mentioned doesn’t take business money.
Journalists who plan to incorporate PFPS US in a narrative ought to ask about any monetary relationships that may pose an precise or perceived battle of curiosity relating to the problem they’re reporting on.
Coverage priorities
One of many group’s first actions was to pressure U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to place affected person security on his company’s strategic plan. After they didn’t get a response, Sheridan mentioned, three members of the group published an editorial within the Journal of Affected person Security and Danger Administration.
The stress techniques might have had an impact. In November, Becerra convened the National Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety, a public-private collaborative among the many Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers (CMS) and enormous hospital techniques. PFPS US was additionally invited to hitch a working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and dispatched audio system to debate reforms on the 2023 CMS Quality Conference.
Listed here are a couple of of PFPS US’s agenda gadgets:
- Making communication and determination applications, reminiscent of CANDOR, a normal of care.
- Establishing a federal entity to coordinate affected person security.
- Increasing public reporting of security occasions.
- Making a nationwide portal for anybody to report incidents.
- Including affected person security inquiries to CMS’s HCAHPS, a standardized nationwide shopper survey on hospital care.
- Eliminating confidentiality agreements in legal responsibility settlements.
The group additionally endorses enforcement of current legal guidelines to carry supplier organizations accountable, Sheridan mentioned. In Might 2022 it petitioned the HHS Office of the Inspector General to research whether or not Vanderbilt Medical Heart dedicated Medicare fraud in protecting up a affected person’s dying on account of a medicine error, and whether or not CMS and the Tennessee well being division responded appropriately.
Contact data
Reporters can contact PFPS US Co-Founder Sue Sheridan at 208-867-3479 or ssheridan@pfps.us.
