QF Patient Safety Terms and Definitions

In order to standardize patient safety terminology and their definitions, a review process was initiated at the National Quality Forum (NQF) to collate, review and finalize a standardized set of terms that will be utilized in NQF patient safety programs and products.

The NQF Patient Safety Team, originally consisting of four members—(the Senior Advisor for Patient Safety, a Project Manager, and two Research Analysts, two with clinical backgrounds and two with policy backgrounds)—initially conducted an internal review of all NQF patient safety related terms and corresponding definitions. The original analysis of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Common Formats for Event Reporting to Patient Safety Organizations (Common Formats), the NQF-endorsed Patient Safety Event Taxonomy, and the World Health Organization International Classification for Patient Safety (WHO-ICPS) yielded additional terms and definitions, as selected by the Team.

This initial set of terms and definitions was reviewed by the Team, and then expanded to comprise initiatives including: the Common Data Fields project, an NQF-lead multi-stakeholder initiative to identify definitions related to measure submissions; NQF safety-related reports; the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary; and multiple publications from The Institute of Medicine (including To Err is Human and Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Healthcare).