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About DoD Patient Safety Program

The Department of Defense Patient Safety Program was mandated by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act of 2001 in an effort to ensure the safe delivery of health care to 9.6 million TRICARE beneficiaries across the Military Health System. The DoD PSP fosters a culture of patient safety through promoting trust and transparency to empower everyone to deliver safe and reliable care to every patient we serve. Our mission is to promote a culture of safety to eliminate preventable patient harm by engaging, educating and equipping patient-care teams to institutionalize evidence-based safe practices. To accomplish this mission, we target health care leadership, health care professionals and beneficiaries, and outline their roles in patient safety practices.

The DoD PSP guiding principles include:

Encouraging an evidence-based systems approach to create a safer patient environment
Engaging MHS leadership in the importance of patient safety and the establishment of an organizational culture that supports it
Fostering trust, transparency, teamwork, and communication

Our dedication to patient safety is evident in all communications and through coordination and teamwork. Our comprehensive program provides products, services, educational opportunities and training resources. The DoD PSP is helping to instill a culture of enhanced communication to improve team skills and behaviors which will ultimately prevent medical errors.