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Patient Safety Advisory Group Fact Sheet

The Patient Safety Advisory Group helps identify critical and emerging patient safety issues. It also suggests effective methods for reducing patient safety risks. The Patient Safety Advisory Group is comprised of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, risk managers and other professionals who have hands-on experience in addressing patient safety issues in a wide variety of health care settings.

The group also reviews draft patient safety recommendations for potential publication in the Joint Commission’s periodic Sentinel Event Alert advisory and advises Joint Commission staff as to the evidence for and face validity of these recommendations, as well as their practicality and cost of implementation.

In April 2002, The Joint Commission appointed a panel of widely recognized patient safety experts to advise it on the development of Sentinel Event Alert, The Joint Commission’s patient safety newsletter. At that time, the panel was named the Sentinel Event Advisory Group; in 2009 the panel was renamed the Patient Safety Advisory Group.

Advisory group members

  • Patrick J. Brennan, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, University of Pennsylvania Health System
  • Michael Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD (hon), DPS (hon), FASHP, Founder and President Emeritus, Institute for Safe Medication Practices
  • Frank Federico, RPh, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
  • Martin J. Hatlie, JD, President and CEO, Project Patient Care
  • Paul Kelley, CBET, AAMIF, Healthcare Technology Management Expert and Environmental Sustainability (healthcare) Advocate
  • Patricia A. McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, Vice President Safety, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
  • Daniel J Ross, MD, DDS, Department of Defense, Defense Health Agency
  • Matthew Scanlon, MD, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Children’s Wisconsin

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