Common Formats for Patient Safety Data 

COMMENT: The comment period for Common Formats Version 1.2 is now open. 

The Opportunity

The Common Formats establish a common method for healthcare providers to collect and exchange information for patient safety events. Any healthcare provider can use the Common Formats. In addition, use of the Common Formats will ensure consistency of reporting among patient safety organizations (PSOs) as they begin to standardize the collection of patient safety event information using common language, definitions, and reporting formats.

About the Project

NQF, on behalf of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is coordinating a process to obtain comments from stakeholders about the Common Formats authorized by the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act). The term "Common Formats" refers to the common definitions and reporting formats that allow healthcare providers to collect and submit standardized information regarding patient safety events. The scope of Common Formats applies to all patient safety concerns including incidents, near misses or close calls and unsafe conditions.

To date NQF has collected comments on Common Formats for acute care hospitals in 0.1 Beta, Version 1.0, Version 1.1 and it continues to collect comments on Version 1.1. It recently closed the commenting period for the Beta version of Skilled Nursing Facilities Common Formats. NQF is now collecting comments on the new beta version Common Format for Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) which includes Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE) and applies to both hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Other future versions of the Common Formats will be developed for additional care settings, such as ambulatory surgery centers, and physician and practitioner offices. The newest Common Format – VTE – contains an event-specific event description, a sample data collection form, and a sample aggregate report.

The Patient Safety Act contains several major elements, one of which establishes a framework that hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers can use to improve healthcare quality in a protected legal environment of specially designated patient safety organizations (PSOs). The Patient Safety Act authorizes the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to facilitate the creation and maintenance of the NPSD to accept, aggregate, and analyze non-identifiable patient safety work product. The NPSD will then make information on trends and patterns in healthcare errors available to the public. The Patient Safety Act also authorizes the Secretary of HHS to determine Common Formats for reporting among the NPSD.

Currently available elements of Common Formats Version 1.1(acute care hospitals) and the Beta version of Skilled Nursing Facilities Common Formats, include event descriptions, sample aggregate reports, reporting forms, a users guide, and technical specifications. The Common Formats provide for basic information about all events and more granular information for the most commonly-occurring types of events. Event descriptions provide specific delineation of the information to be captured for each type of patient safety event. The sample reports give examples of the types of reports that will be available to Common Formats users. The technical specifications promote standardization by ensuring data collected by PSOs and other entities are clinically and electronically comparable.

For more information about the Common Formats, visit the AHRQ website. The complete set of Common Formats, including generic and event-specific Common Formats, can be found at http://www.psoppc.org/web/patientsafety.

Objectives

The main purposes of the Common Formats are to:

• standardize patient safety event data collection, and
• permit aggregation of collected data for pattern analysis, learning, and trending of patient safety events.

NQF's Common Formats project enables AHRQ to receive and respond to stakeholder input and to receive expert guidance on refining the Common Formats.

Process

NQF has established a process and tools for receiving comments on the Common Formats beginning with the release of each set and version and continuing for a specified period thereafter. This project is guided by an Expert Panel that considers and makes recommendations regarding comments from healthcare stakeholders. Previously, based upon the Expert Panel’s recommendations, AHRQ, in conjunction with an interagency Federal Patient Safety Work Group, revised and refined the Common Formats that are now available as Version 1.1 and Skilled Nursing Facilities, Beta version. AHRQ has now developed the Beta version of the VTE Common Format. The Expert Panel will continue to use relevant elements of NQF's Consensus Development Process to receive and review comments on new and updated sets of the Common Formats; however, the process will not involve voting or endorsement of any product.

Funding

Funding for this project has been provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Contact Information

For more information, please contact Melinda Murphy at 202-783-1300 or info@qualityforum.org.