The National Patient Safety Foundation was an independent not-for-profit organization created in 1997 to engage key stakeholders to advance patient safety and health care workforce safety and disseminate strategies to prevent harm. In May 2017, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and NPSF began working together as one organization. The merged entity is committed to using its combined knowledge and resources to focus and energize the patient safety agenda in order to build systems of safety across the continuum of care.
History
The National Patient Safety Foundation began as an idea proposed in 1996 at a large conference on medical error that was organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower Medical Center in California and funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. At that meeting, representatives of the AMA announced plans to form a foundation that would be "a collaborative initiative involving all members of the healthcare community aimed at stimulating leadership, fostering awareness, and enhancing patient safety knowledge creation, dissemination and implementation." Among the foundation's early activities was a survey of public opinion of patient safety issues. The survey, conducted by Louis Harris & Associates revealed that more than 4 out of 5 respondents had heard about a situation where a medical mistake had been made. More than one-third of respondents had been involved, either personally or through a friend or relative, in a situation where a medical error was made. In 2007, NPSF formed the Lucian Leape Institute, a think tank named for renowned patient safety leader, Dr. Lucian Leape. The Lucian Leape Institute's charter is "to identify new approaches to improving patient safety, call for the innovation necessary to expedite the work, create significant, sustainable improvements in culture, process, and outcomes, and encourage key stakeholders to assume significant roles in advancing patient safety." Since the 2017 merger with IHI, the Lucian Leape Institute continues this work as a program within IHI's overall safety work.
Research
Part of the NPSF mission was to identify and create "a core body of knowledge" about patient safety. To that end, the NPSF Research Grants Program began in 1998, with support provided by members of the NPSF Board of Directors. The program's objective was "to promote studies leading to the prevention of human errors, system errors, patient injuries, and the consequences of such adverse events in the health care setting." Overall during the program's existence, NPSF funded 39 research projects investigating areas such as medication errors, systems design, and diagnostic errors. More than 200 papers and presentations resulting either directly or indirectly from this work have been published in academic journals and presented at national and international conferences. The last published research grants progress report details the grant projects and subsequent research.**
Education and professional development
Educating health professionals about patient safety best practices is a key area of focus for NPSF. Since the annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress has brought together health leaders, patient safety professionals, and patient advocates. In recent years, the meeting has touched on some of the most pressing concerns in health care, such as the move toward patient satisfaction as a measure of quality, engaging patients and families in their care, and the use of simulation to teach and promote safe practices. One of the foundation's recent areas of focus is elevating patient safety as a medical discipline and a career path for medical professionals. The American Society of Professionals in Patient Safety, which was formed in January 2011, was introduced as the first such organization for individuals seeking to immerse themselves in a community of like-minded professionals. NPSF was instrumental in creating the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety. Established in 2012, the CBPPS is an independent body charged with developing and overseeing a credentialing exam for the patient safety field.
Major programs and sponsored events
American Society of Professionals in Patient Safety
