HHS Announces Plans To Develop Web-Based System To Streamline Patient Safety Data Collection, Reporting
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson yesterday announced that the department has awarded a two-year, $5.9 million contract to the KEVRIC Company, based in Silver Spring, Md., to improve the department's patient safety data collection and reporting system. Under the contract, awarded through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the company will develop a new Internet-based system to streamline data collection and reporting practices used by several HHS agencies such as the CDC, the FDA and CMS. The contract represents a "significant step" in Thompson's plan to integrate data collection systems at HHS. Thompson said, "It is important that we reduce the burdens that providers face today in reporting information on patient safety. If we can achieve that goal, then we can more easily and quickly collect that information and get it to the people who can use it to improve the quality and safety of the care all Americans receive." HHS plans to expand the integration plan to other governmental agencies and departments, such as state health departments, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and agencies in other nations (HHS release, 11/25).
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