The Patient Safety Reporting System (PSRS) is a learning program being jointly developed by two federal agencies: the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The PSRS invites everyone who works in a VA facility to voluntarily report any events or concerns that involve patient safety.
The VA signed an interagency agreement with NASA in May 2000 to develop a Patient Safety Reporting System (PSRS) for their healthcare facilities. This system’s guiding principles are voluntary participation, confidentiality protection, and non-punitive reporting. It is designed to be a complementary external system to the current internal reporting system.
NASA is using its experience from developing and managing the highly successful Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). NASA developed and has been operating this system for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since 1976. ASRS has been lauded for its strict confidentiality procedures, report management, database created for the easy retrieval of information, creative safety products, and safety information distribution. Their knowledge and experience in this area will be applied to PSRS.
Please remember that PSRS does not replace the current VA internal reporting system. As a complementary system, PSRS will identify vulnerabilities but will not provide detailed solutions as is the case with events that are reported internally and subjected to the Root Cause Analysis process established by VANCPS. |
