Clinical debriefings are one of the most underused tools
in patient safety.
AHDQ PSO exists to change that.

Yes. You do not need an existing debriefing program to join AHDQ PSO. Many organizations join specifically to build their first structured debriefing program — and AHDQ PSO is designed to support them from the ground up. Others are farther along in their debriefing journey and join to level up the reliability and impact of an existing program through collaborative learning, benchmarking, and expert guidance. Learn the latest evidence with our clinical debriefing guide.

A clinical debriefing is a safe, structured team conversation that reviews an event’s actions and thought processes to discover insights that improve future care.  Most published healthcare debriefing tools are used shortly after clinical events within the same shift, take several minutes to complete, and can be led by a care team member. Read our clinical debriefing guide for more details.

Clinical debriefings are associated with improvements in: 

• Patient outcomes (e.g., mortality, neurologic outcomes)

• Team member outcomes (e.g., burnout, intention to leave their job, safety culture surveys)

• Operational cost savings (e.g., labor hours, length of stay)

• Reduced risk and liabilities.
  

Yes. Healthcare organizations can participate in more than one PSO simultaneously. AHDQ PSO is the only PSO focused exclusively on clinical debriefing. Many PSOs provide more generalized quality and safety benefits, but they do not provide the specific debriefing learning infrastructure, benchmarking data, or expert guidance that AHDQ PSO offers. Joining AHDQ PSO adds a focused layer of debriefing-specific value to supplement the value your current PSO already provides.

A Patient Safety Organization is a federally designated entity established under the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005. PSOs create a legally protected environment where healthcare organizations can collect, analyze, and learn from patient safety events without fear of legal discovery. AHDQ PSO is listed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and operates exclusively in the domain of clinical debriefing.

A Patient Safety Evaluation System is the internal system a healthcare organization uses to collect and analyze patient safety information in collaboration with a PSO. Information entered into a PSES is protected as Patient Safety Work Product under federal law. AHDQ PSO assists member organizations with integrating clinical debriefing activity into their PSES so that debriefing data is eligible for full legal protection.

Patient Safety Work Product is information collected or developed by a healthcare organization working with a PSO that receives federal confidentiality and privilege protections under the Patient Safety Act of 2005. For clinical debriefing this matters because debriefing conversations surface near misses, system failures, and team breakdowns — exactly the kind of information that can become discoverable in litigation without PSO protection. Through AHDQ PSO membership, debriefs, deliberations, and analyses your organization conducts are eligible for PSWP protection under the Patient Safety Act of 2005.

No. Collaborative Members do not submit individual patient data or case-specific debriefing records. Participation at the Collaborative level involves Safe Tables, benchmarking reports, educational resources, and PSO membership benefits. Structured debrief submission is available to Reporting and Platform members who want to build a protected debrief database and access organization-specific analytics and benchmarking insights.

AHDQ PSO is designed for any healthcare organization committed to improving patient safety through clinical debriefing. This includes hospitals and health systems, critical access hospitals, EMS agencies, ambulatory surgical centers, specialty hospitals, urgent care centers, clinics and physician practices, and quality, risk, and patient safety programs. Organizations do not need to have a minimum number of staff or providers to participate.

AHDQ PSO supports all eight patient safety activities required under the Patient Safety Act of 2005. These activities are focused on using clinical debriefing to improve patient safety and the quality of care. Member organizations gain access to structured debriefing tools, implementation resources, Safe Tables for protected peer learning, national benchmarking data, and expert guidance. All activities are conducted within a federally protected PSWP framework.

Safe Tables are structured virtual sessions held quarterly where member organizations participate in protected peer learning conversations about debriefing practice, implementation challenges, and patient safety themes. Sessions are facilitated by the AHDQ PSO clinical team, conducted under full PSWP protection, and typically run between 30 to 60 minutes. Any representative from an AHDQ PSO member organization who is involved in patient safety, quality improvement, risk management, clinical education, or debriefing program leadership is encouraged to attend.

Yes. Collaborative Membership is designed as a natural starting point for organizations building or strengthening their debriefing infrastructure. As your program matures and your need for analytics, structured data submission, and more expert guidance grows, upgrading to Reporting or Platform membership is a straightforward next step. There is no penalty or waiting period for upgrading — organizations can move tiers when the time is right for them.

Reporting and Platform Members submit structured debriefing data into a HIPAA-compliant, federally protected database operating within the AHDQ PSO Patient Safety Evaluation System. All submitted data is protected as Patient Safety Work Product under the Patient Safety Act of 2005 and cannot be used in civil, criminal, or administrative proceedings. No identifiable data is shared externally. De-identified data may be incorporated into aggregate national benchmarking analyses to support collaborative learning across member organizations.

The CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure requires acute care hospitals to attest annually to 25 patient safety best practices across five domains. AHDQ PSO membership directly satisfies Domain 4-B — the requirement to work with a Patient Safety Organization. Members who actively participate in Safe Tables, benchmarking, and collaborative learning activities may also support multiple attestation statements in Domain 1 (Leadership Commitment: 1-C), Domain 2 (Strategic Planning: 2-E), and Domain 3 (Culture of Safety: 3-D, 3-E). Contact us to discuss how AHDQ PSO membership maps to your organization's specific PSSM attestation goals.

AHDQ PSO is a federally listed component Patient Safety Organization operated by StatDebrief, a clinical debriefing solutions company. AHDQ PSO was established as a dedicated PSO infrastructure to support healthcare organizations participating in the national debriefing collaborative. Use of the StatDebrief platform is not required for Collaborative or Reporting membership. Platform Members receive access to the StatDebrief platform as part of their membership.