With more than 300,000 patient safety incidents and serious events reported, Pennsylvania’s patient safety database reached a new milestone in 2024. Analysis by the state’s Patient Safety Authority (PSA) shows that reports increased 9.5% from 2023 to 2024, with serious events up by 7.3% and high-harm events up by 1.1%.  

PSA Executive Director Regina M. Hoffman, M.B.A., R.N., says, “It is gratifying to see the increase in reporting; healthy reporting is associated with a culture that supports and prioritizes safety.” 

Pennsylvania requires all hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities and birthing centers to report events that cause or could cause patient harm. The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is the largest patient safety data repository of its kind in the United States and is managed by PSA. Like the Betsy Lehman Center in Massachusetts, PSA uses data, education and collaboration to improve patient safety in Pennsylvania. PA-PSRS contains more than 5 million reports submitted since 2004, when the reporting requirement went into effect. 

Based on trends seen in the data, PSA is currently addressing a sharp rise in serious neonatal complications. Together with health care facilities and partner organization ECRI, PSA analyzed all serious event reports of neonatal injury or death in a single year and developed new recommendations to be released this summer.  

“This work helped shape pivotal recommendations for reducing the risk of injury related to shoulder dystocia, the most frequent neonatal complication seen in recent reports," says Hoffman. The initiative is highlighted in PSA’s annual report for 2024.