The Patient Safety and Quality
Improvement Act of 2005 (hereafter the Patient Safety Act, see
Attachment A-2), signed into law on July 29, 2005, was enacted in
response to growing concern about patient safety in the United
States and the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report, To Err is
Human: Building a Safer Health System. The goal of the statute is
to improve patient safety by providing an incentive for health care
providers to work voluntarily with experts in patient safety to
reduce risks and hazards to the safety and quality of patient care.
When specific statutory requirements are met by organizations
seeking to offer expert analytic services regarding patient safety,
the information collected and the analyses and deliberations
regarding the information, receive Federal confidentiality and
privilege protections under this legislation. The Secretary of the
Department of Health and Human Services delegated authority to the
Director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to enforce the
confidentiality protections of the patient safety legislation and
delegated authority to the Director of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) to implement and administer the rest of
the statute's provisions (Federal Register, Vol. 71, No. 95, May
17, 2006, p. 28701-2).
US Code:
42
USC 299 Name of Law: Healthcare Research and Quality Act of
1999
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.