National Patient Safety Board Act Reintroduced in Congress, Continuing Push to Prevent Medical Harm

U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-CA) reintroduced the National Patient Safety Board Act on October 15, continuing a national effort to address preventable medical harm and create a coordinated, systems-based approach to improving patient safety. The legislation, H.R. 10810, would establish a National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) dedicated to identifying widespread causes of patient harm and developing solutions to prevent medical errors.

The legislation marks another milestone in a multiyear advocacy effort led byacoalition of over 90 organizations convened by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI), which championed the creation of a national entity dedicated to preventing medical harm. Barragán previously introduced NPSB legislation in 2022 and sponsored a bipartisan version in 2024 with former Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX). Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) is an original cosponsor of the latest bill.

An estimated one in four patients in the United States experiences harm or an adverse event in a healthcare setting, and preventable medical errors are estimated to contribute to 250,000 deaths annually. Despite these alarming figures, no single federal entity is responsible for examining patient safety risks across the nation's healthcare system and coordinating solutions to prevent harm.

The NPSB would leverage existing patient safety data and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and automated surveillance systems, to detect warning signs before harm occurs. It would also convene multidisciplinary experts to investigate underlying causes of widespread safety problems and recommend practical solutions, while reducing the burden of manual data collection on frontline healthcare workers.

“We are very excited to see the National Patient Safety Board Act re-introduced in the 119th Congress, and we thank Representative Nanette Barragán for her continued leadership as the sponsor of this visionary legislation,” said Martin Hatlie, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Patients for Patient Safety US. “Establishment of this non-regulatory, investigation body will fill an important gap in our nation’s learning and improvement engine, by creating a place where errors or systemic risks are studied to proactively prevent future harm. Enactment of Rep. Barragán’s bill would be extremely meaningful to the millions of people in the United States who annually experience the tragedy of a missed or delayed diagnosis, serious injury as a patient, or needless loss of a loved one, and hope that what happened to us can help others avoid a similar fate.”

“We thank Representative Barragán for her continued leadership in advancing patient safety. There remains a critical need for a National Patient Safety Board that can identify emerging risks, bring together expertise from across the country, and drive consensus around solutions to prevent patient harm,” said Robert Ferguson, MPH, JHF chief policy officer and co-chair of the National Patient Safety Board Advocacy Coalition.

The legislation builds on the momentum of JHF's broader patient safety initiatives, including the Coalition for Advancing Safer Healthcare (CASH), launched in 2025 to bring together national experts to envision an Ambition Health System with safety designed into its operations from the ground up.

“Through the recent work of the Coalition for Advancing Safer Healthcare (CASH), we have seen firsthand what is possible when multidisciplinary teams of national experts work together to develop practical solutions,” Ferguson said. “That same collaborative, systems-based approach is essential to making health care safer for everyone.”

Learn more about the legislation and the National Patient Safety Board Advocacy Coalition at npsb.org/housebill.