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Please contact the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture team (SafetyCultureSurveys@westat.com) to request AHRQ’s permission to translate and/or use the surveys internationally.

For more information about international use of the Surveys on Patient Safety Culture, go to the SOPS International Users page.

������Ƶestablished the Medical Office SOPS Database as a central repository for survey data from the Medical Office SOPS. ������Ƶhas produced Database Reports, which aggregate data from thousands of medical offices that have voluntarily submitted their data to the database. The database serves as an important resource for patient safety culture improvement.

Information about eligibility requirements, registration procedures, and benefits of participating in the database is available on the SOPS site.

The Patient Safety Act or PSQIA establishes a framework by which hospitals, doctors, and other health care providers may voluntarily report information to Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), on a privileged and confidential basis, for the aggregation and analysis of patient safety and health care quality information.

The provisions of this law relating to the listing and operation of PSOs are administered by the ������Ƶ (AHRQ). The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for implementing the provisions regarding the interpretation, administration, and enforcement of the confidentiality protections and disclosure permissions.

For more information on the Patient Safety Act and how organizations can work with or become PSOs, go to the .

If your grant is under expanded authorities (in general, the following ������Ƶgrant activity codes are included under expanded authorities: F31, F32, K01, K02, K08, K18, K99, P20, R00, R01, R03, R13, R18, R21, R33, R24, R25, R36), the grantee institution has the authority to automatically extend the final budget period end date one time for a period of up to 12 months. Effective on August 1, 2020, ������Ƶgrant recipients may, and effective October 1, 2020, ������Ƶgrantee recipients must, use the No-Cost Extension feature in the eRA Commons to execute this extension. Read . Select on the standard process that an ������Ƶgrantee may follow to submit a one-time No Cost Extension in eRA Commons.

This action must be taken before the final budget period expires, using the No-Cost Extension (NCE) feature in the eRA Commons. Accessible from the eRA Commons “Status” screen, the link for the No-Cost Extension feature appears 90 days before the final budget period end date and closes at 11:59 p.m. on the final budget period end date. In extending the final budget period end date of the grant through the eRA Commons, the grantee agrees to update all required certifications, including human subjects and animal welfare, in accordance with applicable regulations and policies. An interim progress report and an interim FFR, reflecting programmatic progress and financial expenditures, respectively, through the original project end date, will be required to be submitted to the ������ƵGMS named on the most recent NOA no later than 90 days from the original project end date.

Grantees may not extend a project end date previously extended by AHRQ. Once the eRA Commons link is closed, a NCE becomes a prior approval request and must be submitted for consideration to the ������ƵGrants Management Specialist named on the most recent Notice of Award. Any additional final budget period end date extension beyond the one-time extension of up to 12 months requires ������Ƶprior approval.

If your grant is NOT under expanded authorities (e.g. K12, P01, P30, P50, T32, U01, U13, U18, U19, and UC1, or any award for which the terms and conditions indicate either that the award is not under expanded authorities or that the award may not use the no-cost extension option under expanded authorities), the grantee institution must submit a written prior approval request, endorsed by an authorized institutional official, to the Grants Management Specialist named on the most recent Notice of Award. The request is to include a statement of why the extension is needed, the requested duration of the extension (not to exceed 12 months), research objectives to be completed during the extension period, and a detailed budget page and budget justification for the use of unobligated funds anticipated to remain at the end of the current budget period. No additional funds will be awarded for an extension. If the extension is approved, ������Ƶwill issue a revised Notice of Award reflecting the new project end date.

Whether under expanded authorities or not, an extension may only be made when no additional funds are required to be obligated by the awarding agency, there will be no change in the originally approved project scope or objective, and more time is needed to complete the research. The fact that funds remain at the expiration date of the project is not in and of itself sufficient justification for an extension. Conversely, if grant funds have been fully expended, an extension should not be requested/approved.

Please note that a request for a second no-cost extension can only be considered by ������Ƶif the grantee can demonstrate that unusual circumstances occurred that prevented the project from being completed during the original extension period. An extension is considered a second extension even if the first extension was less than 12 months long.

Contact the assigned ������ƵGrants Management Specialist for details of what information needs to be included in a prior approval request for a second no-cost extension, which will include at a minimum: an explanation of the unusual circumstances warranting consideration of the request; strong programmatic justification of why it is crucial for the project to be extended further; progress to date; research objectives still to be completed; requested duration of second extension (not to exceed 12 months); the estimated unobligated balance expected to remain at the end of the first NCE, and a detailed budget and budget justification for use of these funds.

The Patient Safety Act authorizes ������Ƶto designate or "list" an entity as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). With some restrictions, a PSO can be any public or private entity. To become or remain an AHRQ-listed PSO, the entity must meet certain requirements such as the utilization of qualified staff and the provision of appropriate security measures with respect to Patient Safety Work Product (PSWP). The work of a PSO is not federally funded. Rather, PSOs may serve as contractors to providers for the analysis and feedback of confidential and privileged information related to patient safety and health care quality.

For more information, go to the PSO website: .

Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) serve as independent, external experts who can assist providers in analyzing data that a provider voluntarily chooses to report to the PSO. Providers that work with a PSO can benefit from the ability of PSOs to aggregate data from all of the providers reporting to the PSO, enabling PSOs to accumulate large numbers of patient safety events essential for identifying patterns and trends, and to facilitate the identification of underlying causes of infrequent, but often tragic, adverse events.

When a health care provider, including a multi-facility health care system, works with a PSO, it can collect, manage, and analyze data within a protected legal environment, both within and across states, without the fear that information will be used against those providers, thus removing significant barriers that can deter providers' participation in patient safety and quality improvement initiatives.

To help providers select an appropriate PSO, ������Ƶhas published a summary, "Choosing a Patient Safety Organization" (, 1 MB).

TeamSTEPPS in-person training sessions are no longer available.

Information about the self-paced online course is available on the TeamSTEPPS site, or download the mobile Pocket Guide app.

The information on the About TeamSTEPPS page also provides guidelines about your organization's readiness to implement TeamSTEPPS.

Print copies of the ESI Triage Tool and other ESI materials are no longer available.

PDFs of the ESI materials can be downloaded from the ������Ƶwebsite at /professionals/systems/hospital/esi/. The videos linked on the ESI page are the videos that were formerly available on the DVD.