National legislative activities

In 2005 the AMA lead the passage of the Patient Safety law. The AMA will continue to lead physicians' efforts to measurably improve patient safety and quality of care by:

• Working to ensure the law's implementation and to advance other measures, including voluntary reporting systems with strong confidentiality protections.

• Continuing to convene the highly respected Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement to develop evidence-based performance measures to improve the quality of care.

UPDATE: On April 11, 2008, the AMA submitted comments to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on the proposed rule for implementing the Patient Safety law that establishes a federal framework for physicians, hospitals, and other health care professionals and entities to voluntarily report patient safety work product to patient safety organizations (PSOs) on a privileged and confidential basis. Read more