ASA Endorses Legislation to Establish a National Patient Safety Board

ASA has endorsed H.R. 7591, the National Patient Safety Board Act introduced by Rep. Nanette Barrgan (D-CA-44) and Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX-26). This bill would establish a National Patient Safety Board (NPSB), an independent federal board within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address patient safety in health care.

With its nonpunitive, multidisciplinary Research and Development Team, the NPSB would complement existing agencies in monitoring and anticipating patient safety events with artificial intelligence, provide expertise to study the causes of errors, create recommendations and solutions to prevent future harms, and leverage existing systems to bring key learnings into practice.

ASA commends these efforts in Congress to address patient safety in health care and urges Congress to advance this important legislation.