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New classification system aims to improve safety, reduce errors

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, August 11, 2005

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A system called the Patient Safety Event Taxonomy (PSET) could unite numerous patient safety reporting systems already in use to allow for interoperability among the systems and lead to improved patient safety and reduced medical errors.

The system, which would establish the nation's first standardized integrative classification system for healthcare errors and safety problems, was developed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and is receiving endorsement from the National Quality Forum (NQF), according to a statement issued by the NQF.

The systems already in use by providers, professional organizations, some states, and agencies of the federal government, identify, catalog, and analyze errors and patient safety concerns.

But without a specific classification system in place, they cannot "talk" with each other and there is no way to compile and compare the gathered data, which is what PSET will do, according to the NQF.

NQF also said that, to enhance clarity and support implementation of the PSET, it endorses uniform reporting through "definitions of key patient safety terms, standard reporting elements for patient safety reporting systems, and additional recommendations in two areas related to the taxonomy: guiding principles to improve it and the role of the taxonomy in the healthcare information technology infrastructure."

To read the statement and a report from the NQF on standardizing a patient safety taxonomy, click here.

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