To explore these dynamics, Beterra Health — a healthcare technology company specializing in governance, risk and compliance — shared insights on the transformative power of technology, the critical role of staff feedback and actionable strategies for achieving PSSM readiness.
Understanding the importance of PSSM
PSSM compliance is not just an internal benchmark but a publicly visible indicator of a healthcare organization’s commitment to safety. With safety metrics often influencing payer negotiations and public trust, organizations that excel in PSSM readiness position themselves favorably in payment models and regulatory evaluations.
The PSSM is anchored in five key domains that serve as the foundation for its framework:
- Leadership Commitment to Eliminating Preventable Harm
- Strategic Planning and Organizational Policy
- Culture of Safety and Learning Health System
- Accountability and Transparency
- Patient and Family Engagement
These domains provide a structured approach for organizations to evaluate and enhance their safety practices.
PSSM serves as a critical benchmark for healthcare organizations, signaling their commitment to systematized safety practices. It provides a framework for evaluating the structures and processes that underpin patient safety outcomes, ensuring that facilities are not only meeting regulatory requirements but also fostering an environment where safety is embedded into daily operations.
“PSSM is not just a regulatory checkbox,” Kapil Nair, Beterra co-founder and CEO said. “It’s a lens through which organizations can view their safety culture, processes and outcomes. Compliance ensures accountability, but the real goal is creating a safer environment for patients and staff alike.”
Beterra has extensive experience administering safety culture surveys as well as deploying technology that helps clients drive toward continual, actionable improvement. Leveraging this experience, Beterra seeks to further impact the management and improvement of patient safety among its client base.
Technology as a catalyst for simplifying PSSM readiness
Beterra’s approach to technology is rooted in simplifying the complexities of PSSM tracking and compliance. Daniel Baily, co-founder and chief product officer, highlighted how Beterra’s platform addresses key challenges in efficiency and workflows.
“One of the biggest hurdles we see is the administrative burden,” Mr. Baily said. “The leaders responsible for compliance are dependent on the engagement of busy, operational leaders. Our technology streamlines data collection, reporting and gap analysis, giving leaders a real-time view of their readiness without the administrative overhead. It’s about making the process manageable so teams can focus on the real work of improvement.”
To assess readiness and needs in this realm, healthcare leaders should ask themselves six key questions:
- What specific challenges has your organization faced, or will likely face, in tracking and managing PSSM readiness?
- How has technology supported or hindered your ability to improve patient safety in the past? Will that same technology assist with PSSM compliance?
- What role do you see for data-driven insights in improving patient safety outcomes?
- How will your organization obtain and sustain full compliance with the PSSM mandate?
- What tools will executives have to understand the current state, ongoing work effort and future gaps in achieving a robust and compliant structure for patient safety?
- For system leaders, how will you identify local gaps across the system and share best practices between facilities?
How staff engagement drives compliance
While technology provides the tools to simplify PSSM readiness, the voices of front-line staff offer the insights necessary to make these tools effective. Mr. Nair said his clients consistently emphasize the value of engaging their teams in the safety process.
“Staff feedback is the heartbeat of safety culture,” Mr. Nair noted. “It’s not enough to have systems in place; you need to know how they’re working in practice. That’s where our clients excel — by making staff engagement a priority.”
Leaders should consider four key questions to foster meaningful staff engagement:
- How do you involve front-line staff in shaping your safety initiatives?
- What mechanisms do you use to gather and act on staff feedback?
- Can you share an example of how staff insights led to a meaningful safety improvement?
- How are your safety culture feedback metrics being leveraged to assess the efficacy of your safety and reliability improvement efforts?
Building credibility through innovation
Beterra’s successful client partnerships are rooted in leveraging and adapting technology to simplify improvement for leaders of all levels. The platform not only addresses immediate compliance needs but also equips organizations for long-term success.
“Our goal is to be a partner in patient safety,” Mr. Baily said “We don’t just provide tools; we provide insights, support and a pathway to sustained improvement.”
For healthcare administrators and leaders, PSSM represents both a challenge and an opportunity. By embracing technology to streamline processes and engaging staff to provide actionable feedback, organizations can not only achieve compliance but also build a culture of safety that endures.
PSSM readiness positions organizations as leaders in a healthcare landscape where safety outcomes are tightly linked to payment structures and public reporting. It’s a collaborative effort, requiring innovation, dedication and a steadfast commitment to patient safety.
By investing in scalable technology that ensures systems can evolve with safety goals, prioritizing a culture of feedback that engages staff regularly, using data-driven insights to plan and react in real-time, and collaborating with organizations like Beterra, providers can set new standards in the pursuit of excellence.
“At Beterra, we prioritize client centricity by aligning every business decision with the goal of empowering our clients to achieve measurable outcomes,” Mike Heckman, president of Beterra, said. “Our success is a reflection of their success, and we are dedicated to being a trusted partner in their journey toward safety and compliance excellence.”
