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About Us
OUR MISSION: Reducing preventable harm
THE CPS VISION
A healthcare environment safe for all patients and providers.
The Center for Patient Safety (CPS), established in 2005, is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to its mission of reducing preventable harm.
At CPS, our focus is on learning what medical errors occur, why they occur and how to prevent patient harm. We emphasize the importance of culture in promoting safe systems of care.
Our annual internal strategy review using high-achieving program guidance, such as the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria, ensures CPS remains a leader in the healthcare industry and an expert in the field of patient safety and culture improvement. Continual process improvement activities identify new customer needs and service enhancements based on client feedback and industry demands, allowing CPS to provide the most relevant and up-to-date information to our customers.
Together, we are better.
THE CPS VALUES
PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE
The Center focuses on culture, system and process changes.
INTEGRITY
Methods and activities employed or promoted by the Center are non-punitive in nature.
EXCELLENCE
The Center focuses to achieve continuous improvements in patient safety and health care quality.
ADVOCACY
The Center advocates for the implementation of proven patient safety initiatives.
CPS CLIENTS
Safe care is a global topic.
The Center for Patient Safety works with healthcare organizations to reduce preventable harm in every state in the US and countries around the World.
We serve thousands of organizations throughout the care continuum: hospitals, nursing homes, medical offices, emergency medical services (air and ground), pharmacies, behavioral health centers, home care and hospice, ambulatory surgery centers, dental and more.
We also work with individual healthcare providers such as medical directors.
Additionally, we work with many organizations and associations at the local, regional, state, and national level.
There is no organization too big or too small to adopt core safety improvement processes. Our flexible programs can adjust to suit any size.
CPS History
The Institute of Medicine’s 1999 landmark report, To Err Is Human, reported as many as 98,000 deaths occur annually due to errors in hospitals with potentially many more deaths due to errors occurring in other health care settings.
The IOM’s report resulted in an international focus on quality improvement and patient safety further encouraged by the IOM’s March 2001 report, Crossing the Quality Chasm.
In 2003, responding to these reports and to growing concerns about medical malpractice rates in Missouri, Governor Bob Holden formed a 16-member Missouri Commission on Patient Safety.
In July 2004, this Commission called for the creation of a new private Missouri Center for Patient Safety to act as a leadership vehicle for patient safety improvements and be a resource for health care organizations, professionals, and consumers. This center was to advocate for error reduction, assist in sharing information, identify best practices, develop curricula for professionals and disseminate consumer education materials. It also recommended that such a center serves as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) should federal legislation be passed defining requirements for such organizations.
Responding to the Commission’s recommendation, the Missouri Hospital Association (MHA), Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA), and Primaris agreed to establish such an organization.
In January 2005, the Missouri Center for Patient Safety was officially established as a new not-for-profit organization in the state of Missouri.
In July 2005, federal legislation followed in the form of the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. Providing a structure for state-based PSOs, the legislation provides protection for physicians and health care providers that voluntarily and confidentially report adverse event data and information to designated PSOs.
In July 2005, federal legislation followed in the form of the federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. Providing a structure for state-based PSOs, the legislation provides protection for physicians and health care providers that voluntarily and confidentially report adverse event data and information to designated PSOs. The Center was one of the first organizations to be designated by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). As a PSO, the Center began to further support a culture that encourages the reporting, analysis, sharing, learning and prevention of medical errors.
Since its inception, the Center has successfully implemented regional projects that continue to have an impact today including a Just Culture Collaborative, and Banding Together for Patient Safety projects that were each one of the first in the nation to take culture training statewide and to decrease the potential for error related to the use of colored wristbands across the state. Additionally, the Center has led clinical collaboratives that expand upon our own unique enhancement to the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), developed by Johns Hopkins, to improve bedside teamwork and communication.
Beginning in 2012, the Center reframed itself as the Center for Patient Safety (CPS) broadening its vision and mission nationally.
The team of patient safety experts at the Center for Patient Safety are continually:
- enhancing the PSO,
- expanding culture assessment offerings, including the development of culture surveys for EMS and home care,
- developing innovative educational programs,
- creating shared accountability models that drive transparency and encourage reporting of errors that will result in learnings,
- and providing many free resources to support the global initiative for safer care.
Today, CPS is one of the largest and most active organizations dedicated to patient safety, working with healthcare providers across the country and across the continuum of care to reduce preventable harm through programs that protect, learn and prevent.