Jay Rockefeller: “today I am proud to highlight the recognition given to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the high level of…”

“today I am proud to highlight the recognition given to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the high level of attention they have paid to patient safety in recent years. The Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard University has announced that VA's National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) will be one of five winners of the annual Innovations in American Government awards. An article in yesterday's Washington Post brings this achievement to national attention and details why VA's Center was the only federal recipient of the award. It's apparent that the NCPS has cultivated a culture within VA that promotes communication and therefore enables health care staff to feel more comfortable about reporting medical errors or even concerns that they have about patient safety. VA launched this initiative in 1998, but it received a major push in 1999 when the Institute of Medicine released a report estimating that 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year due to medical mistakes. This award demonstrates how VA has pioneered the establishment of the type of culture which must exist. According to the article, many health care providers in the private sector have started to model their patient safety models around that of the NCPS.”