Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs), developed by the federally operated Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), are specifically intended to measure the occurrence rate of potentially preventable complications or adverse events that patients experience during their hospital stays. PSIs specifically measure complications and adverse events from:
- medical conditions after admission
- surgical procedures
- obstetric procedures
PSIs have shown consistently that complication and adverse event rates vary substantially across hospitals. Evidence also suggests that high complication and adverse event rates may be associated with deficiencies in the quality of care. Widespread consensus exists that healthcare providers can reduce patient complications or adverse events by improving the overall environment of care and safety. Hospital-specific data on patient-safety performance and serious medical errors has been included in the annual New Jersey Hospital Performance Report since 2009.
Additionally, the Department of Health publishes PSI supplements to the annual Hospital Performance Report. These technical reports, available at right, cover only the 12 PSIs mandated for public reporting by law. The law also requires that the Department report on two additional adverse events – "Air embolism" and "Surgery on the wrong side, wrong body part, or wrong person, or wrong surgery performed on a patient," which are not part of the AHRQ PSIs. The Department will report on these measures as analytic tools become available.
