HHS Issues Final Plan for Boosting Health IT System Safety

On Tuesday, HHS released a final plan outlining steps for improving the safety of health IT systems. The plan -- called the Health IT Patient Safety Action & Surveillance Plan -- comes in response to a 2011 Institute of Medicine report, which concluded that many patient safety risks stem from the way providers use health IT systems. The plan recommends collecting and analyzing data on patient safety events and incorporating health IT safety in post-market surveillance of electronic health records.

• "HHS Finalizes Health IT Safety Plan" (Hall, FierceHealthIT, 7/2).