The Leapfrog Group

A patient safety organization (PSO) is an organization that seeks to improve medical care by advocating for the reduction of medical errors. Common functions of patient safety organizations include health care data collection, reporting and analysis on health care outcomes, educating providers and patients, raising funds to improve health care, and advocating for safety-oriented policy changes. In the United States, the term typically refers only to PSOs that have been formally recognized by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and listed with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A federally-designated PSO differs from a typical PSO in that it provides health care providers in the U.S. privilege and confidentiality protections in exchange for efforts to improve patient safety.