Patient Safety Institute

Users Speak About PSI

“The PSI network is incredibly useful and time saving, especially in the ER, where you immediately need to sift through a myriad of factors and charts. PSI made it so much easier to care for my patients. Once a physician looks at the summary screen, he or she has the majority of data needed at a quick glance. This truly helps you in adjusting your initial approach toward patients.”
- Meera Kanhouwa, M.D., Medical Director for Information Services at Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA, Chair-Medical Informatics Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and Swedish’s lead clinician on PSI

"Swedish Medical Center in Seattle volunteered to be the national demonstration site for the Patient Safety Institute project. The objective was to provide the doctor, during his or her face-to-face meeting with the patient, with the five basic clinical data elements needed to improve patient care. This project went live in January of 2003. It has continued uninterrupted to the present.

PSI unified clinical results from fourteen disparate databases into a single, user-friendly presentation. Because of the intuitive design of the screens and navigation tools, physicians adopted PSI with virtually no training. It has been easy for the IT department to support the project. The initial installation required approximately .75 FTE of IT support; ongoing maintenance is managed with less than a .5 FTE.

As the CIO overseeing this project, I have been impressed with PSI's ability to meets its objectives and obtain rapid acceptance by clinicians. Of the approximately 50 projects that the IT department undertakes each year, the PSI demonstration project was, in my opinion, the most straightforward and successful of those we were involved with during 2003. The project came in on time and on budget, and had a high acceptance rate by users."
- Chris Leininger, MD, MS, MBA
CIO, Swedish Medical Center

Leaders Speak About PSI

“The field of health is presently faced with the same kind of problems that the bank card industry faced in the early 70s. When the Patient Safety Institute contacted me for assistance it was evident they had the elements necessary for the creation of a VISA like organization: (1) competent, dedicated leadership from within the industry, (2) creative, open architecture with respect to technology, organization and governance, (3) sources of capital and revenue sufficient for a successful beginning, (4) broad vision of what it should become combined with a practical beginning which could be swiftly realized. Above all else, it is consumer centric, dedicated to individual privacy of medical records and voluntary with respect to participation. The need is great, the opportunity even greater. There is no reason why the Patient Safety Institute can't achieve even greater success than VISA.”
- Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, VISA International, Author, Birth of the Chaordic Age and advisor to PSI’s Board of Directors on Organizational Matters

“While there are many good ideas and theories being generated about how to address the sharing of clinical information, the Patient Safety Institute has quietly gone about the business of applying the real-world lessons learned by the banking industry to the similar problems faced by the healthcare industry. As a private sector, consumer centered non-profit organization with a representative board of national stakeholder leaders, based on the successful VISA model, the Institute holds great promise for healthcare and the country.”
- Congressman Sam Johnson, US Congressman, Third District of Texas

“The Patient Safety Institute answers the question: who are you going to trust to handle your electronic medical record? It is in the business of creating trust by giving patients control over their own records and how the information is used. It is a critical compliment to government policies that protect patients' privacy.”
- David Kendall, Senior Fellow for Health Policy and Director of the Health Priorities Project, Progressive Policy Institute

“Collaboration with PSI on its health information network is the key to quickly improving patient safety and controlling healthcare and bioterrorism costs. The 21 governor Western Governors’ Association believes that PSI's approach with its representative governance and focus on patient privacy is the best available answer to state needs.
- Jim Souby, Executive Director, Western Governors’ Association

"The Patient Safety Institute puts the power of a patient's comprehensive and up-to-date medical information quickly and securely in the hands of those who need it most - the patient and their health care practitioners. PSI makes this possible through their ability to confidentially link with the patient, physician, hospital, laboratory and pharmacy to provide the life saving information that is all too often unavailable or incomplete."
- Marie Savard, M.D., An internationally known internist and author of two highly acclaimed books, How to Save Your Own Life: The Savard System for Managing-and Controlling-Your Health Care and The Savard Health Record

“Preventing medical mistakes involves improved communications between patients, physicians, providers and purchasers. PSI's breakthrough real-time clinical information service, coupled with the computerized physician order entry systems Leapfrog promotes, will further reduce the risk of errors.”
- Suzanne Delbanco, Executive Director, The Leapfrog Group

“Medical mistakes claim more than 100,000 lives each year – many simply due to the lack of information – and that’s unacceptable. PSI was born out of the notion that we can transcend political and organizational barriers to share information and make health care safer and more effective. Every physician I talk to is very excited about this because of the freedom it would give them to practice better medicine.”
- Jack Lewin, M.D., CEO, California Medical Association and PSI Board Chair

“PSI is different because it is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization with a goal of providing the best information at the point of care. From its inception, PSI has had an unprecedented arrangement of equal representation by consumers, physicians and hospitals that makes it important to all three groups. PSI is about saving lives by reducing medical errors – and I would like to add in a just-in-time and private manner, too.”
- Jane Delgado, Ph.D., President, National Alliance for Hispanic Health and secretary-treasurer of PSI’s Board of Directors

“PSI will provide an important measure of safety for health care consumers. Only those who need to know will have access to the data, so consumers should feel confident that their privacy is being protected. The National Consumers League is proud to be a partner of PSI’s in this important endeavor for patient safety.”
- Linda F. Golodner, President, National Consumers League and a member of PSI’s Board of Directors

"The lack of easy access to important patient information is a particularly vexing problem in ambulatory care. Physicians may be unaware of test results or drugs ordered for their patients by other physicians who are also seeing those same patients. Patients may have mentioned a drug allergy to one physician, but forgotten to mention it to another. The absence of complete information on these critical issues poses significant hazards to patients, increases medical costs, and acts as a barrier to quality care. That is what the Patient Safety Institute is all about---making sure that physicians have access to the data they need, when they need it, to care for their patients.”
- William F. Jessee, M.D., CMPE, FACMPE, President and CEO, Medical Group Management Association (MGMA)

“We have been looking for ways to satisfy the growing physician desire for data at the point-of-care via wireless access. This is a major step forward in enabling physicians to have the patient data they need, when they need it, and where they need it. The ultimate benefit is improved patient care, which is our primary goal.”
- Richard Peterson, CEO, Swedish Medical Center

“Healthcare in the United States has long and increasingly needed a unifying information system to improve the quality of care, reduce errors in diagnosis and treatment and thereby benefit the citizens who are its patients. The beauty of the PSI concept is that it is such a system, owned by and governed by all the users--patients, their physicians and hospitals--enabled by the sophisticated technology pioneered by VISA to transmit real time secure patient data to their chosen providers. What PSI has done in Seattle is a major step forward toward real coherence in healthcare. I am enthusiastic about this initiative and honored to be able to participate in it.”
- Daniel H. Winship, M.D., Chair Cook County Bureau of Health Services and a member of the PSI Board of Directors

"The Patient Safety Institute offers the first patient-centered, privacy-embedded solution to patient safety concerns. In addition, PSI is a private sector initiative that improves patient safety and enhances health care quality without reliance on the proposed national medical ID number. Patient privacy is key to patient safety. Without the assurance of privacy, patients may not disclose information critical to their care. PSI sets a new standard of respect for patients and the patient's right to privacy and personal autonomy. It is my hope that new consumer expectations will quickly lead to the adoption of PSI standards and privacy principles across the entire health care industry."
- Twila Brase, RN, PHN, President, Citizens' Council on Health Care and a member of the PSI Board of Directors