Beginnings of the Partnership

In 2013, ECRI convened the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety (Partnership). Since then, the Partnership has become the focal point for the collaborative efforts of many groups, including healthcare providers, health IT developers/vendors, academic researchers, patient safety organizations, medical malpractice insurers, and professional societies.

The Partnership has established a stellar expert advisory committee, engaged providers, captured and analyzed reported data, prioritized health IT safety topics, formed specialized workgroups; developed a process for creating safe practices; and published recommendations and implementation strategies.

Foundations for the Partnership

The Partnership strives to build upon the recommendations set forth by various reports—ONC: Enhanced Oversight Final Rule (2016), ONC: Connecting Health and Care for the Nation (2015), ONC: Oversight of the Testing and Certification of Electronic Health Records (2014), BPC Oversight Framework recognizing and suggesting ways to facilitate health IT safety (2013). The Partnership has no regulatory or enforcement powers. Rather in this non-punitive learning environment, the focus is on health IT patient safety and utilizing health IT to provide enhanced quality and safer care.

In response, the Partnership:

• Established a non-punitive environment for sharing and learning
• Tested a collaborative model for collecting and analyzing safety issues

And now the Partnership is working to:

• Achieve and expand stakeholder engagement
• Share best practices and lessons learned
• Inform the national safety strategy for health IT