Ithas been nine months since PA-PSRS was implemented throughout Pennsylvania, and more than 110,000 reports of Serious Events and Incidents will have been submitted by the time this publication goes to press. But, as we repeatedly stress, the point of PA-PSRS is not in the number of reports we receive but in what facilities do with the information contained in those reports.

That is why the articles included in the Patient Safety Advisories are based on actual reports sub-mitted through PA-PSRS. In the recent User Survey conducted late last year, an overwhelming majority (95%) of respondents found the Advisories a useful resource, and nearly one-third of respondents re-ported making changes in their facilities as a result of Advisory articles. These are significant statistics, given a 62% response rate from more than 420 facilities subject to Act 13 reporting requirements.

While a large majority of Patient Safety Officers distribute the Advisories to other staff, only a third reported distributing it to all staff in their facility. This is substantiated by our own conversations with physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff—many of whom are unfamiliar with the Advisories. The information contained in Advisory articles is relevant for all clinicians, and we hope you will distribute the document to as many people in your facility as possible, especially given the ease of electronic email distribution.

We also want to encourage you to use the analytical tools built into the system. Of those facilities responding to the User Survey who use these tools, many report using them for risk and quality management, trend analysis, and Patient Safety Committee meetings. Many others use the tools to prepare reports for senior management and trustees.

As we noted during our commemoration of Patient Safety Awareness Week earlier this month, patient safety is everyone’s business, and it must be everyone’s priority—from hospital trustees and administrators to individual physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, and other healthcare workers. If your facility is going to be successful in creating a “culture of safety” which encourages full and open disclosure, then you must include your entire facility staff in patient safety initiatives and quality improvement efforts.