Get Involved: National Patient Safety Board Act of 2024

HFES cares about ensuring that health care is safe for both patients and providers. But today, sadly, preventable harms in health care are all too common. Recent reports have indicated that 1 in 4 patients experience harm in health care, and medical error kills the equivalent of a jumbo jet crash every day in the United States. Our healthcare providers are experiencing unprecedented challenges to their ability to deliver safe care. We know we can do better.

That’s why we have joined the National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) Advocacy Coalition, a group of more than 90 healthcare organizations, provider associations, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and consumer advocacy groups that has come together to advocate for federal action to address harms in health care. Thanks to the efforts of the Coalition, on March 8, 2024, U.S. Reps. Nanette Barragán (CA-44) and Dr. Michael Burgess (TX-26), introduced the bipartisan National Patient Safety Board Act (H.R. 7591), legislation that would establish an NPSB as a nonpunitive, collaborative, and independent board within the Department of Health and Human Services to address safety in health care, modeled in part after successful entities in the transportation industry. 

You can help with this important effort. Let your legislators know that it’s time to make patient safety a priority. The NPSB Advocacy Coalition has made it easy for you to email your representatives with just a few clicks. Visit https://npsb.org/housebill/ to learn more. It only takes a few keystrokes to voice your support for safer health care.