Seeing the Signal: MPSC Launches the Patient Safety Exchange
Updated: Sep 29
One organization may see an isolated event. Across multiple organizations, it may be a safety signal.
Healthcare organizations encounter safety concerns every day—equipment that does not perform as expected, technology that creates unintended risks, supply disruptions that require workarounds, or processes that repeatedly fail under real-world conditions. Within a single organization, these issues can be difficult to recognize as part of a larger pattern.
But what if other organizations are seeing the same thing? The region needs MPSC as its patient safety infrastructure to connect signals across organizations, learn faster, and act together to reduce repeated serious safety events.
MPSC is launching the Patient Safety Exchange, a member-powered learning network designed to help organizations connect those experiences, identify emerging and persistent risks sooner, and learn from one another before problems lead to repeated harm.
Patient safety needs a wider field of view
No single healthcare organization can see the full picture of patient safety. An event that appears unusual at one hospital may look very different when colleagues across the region begin comparing experiences.
That is the value of the collective.
The Patient Safety Exchange creates a reliable pathway for people across MPSC member organizations to raise concerns, ask “Are others seeing this too?”, and quickly connect with peers who may be encountering the same challenge. From oxygen tank depletion events and equipment failures to IV fluid shortages and technology-related risks, the Exchange is intended to help surface both early signals and persistent problems that may be bigger than understood by any one organization.
This is not about creating a new initiative for every concern. Sometimes the most useful response is simply connecting two people who have encountered the same problem. Other issues may warrant shared resources, a focused workgroup, deeper analysis, a PSO-protected Safe Table, or a coordinated improvement effort. When patterns point to issues that healthcare organizations cannot solve alone, MPSC can also help determine whether there is an opportunity for collective engagement with manufacturers, vendors, regulators, policymakers, or other partners positioned to influence the problem.
The people who see the problem may not work in patient safety
The Exchange is intentionally broader than traditional quality and patient safety roles.
Patient safety is shaped by the equipment clinicians use, the technology embedded in their workflows, the products organizations purchase, the systems used to communicate information, and the operational decisions that affect how care is delivered. That means some of the people best positioned to recognize an emerging safety risk may never have “patient safety” in their title.
We need to hear from clinical engineering and biomedical teams who see recurring equipment problems. We need IT and informatics professionals who recognize technology-related risks and unintended consequences. We need purchasing, supply chain and pharmacy teams navigating shortages, substitutions, and product changes. And we need clinicians, frontline staff, operations leaders, infection preventionists, risk professionals, patient experience teams, and others whose work gives them a different view of where systems are vulnerable.
Bringing those perspectives together gives all of us a better chance of recognizing patterns that no individual department—or individual organization—could identify alone.
See more. Learn faster. Act together.
The Patient Safety Exchange is built around three core ideas:
See more. Bring your emerging concerns and also hear what other organizations are seeing so you can recognize emerging risks and know what to look for within your own organization.
Learn faster. Connect with colleagues who have encountered similar challenges and learn how they are responding.
Act together. When a problem extends beyond one organization, use the collective experience of the network to identify what deserves deeper attention and where coordinated action could make a difference.
The Exchange will include monthly opportunities for members to connect, supported by an online community where participants can ask questions, share resources, and continue conversations between meetings.
Membership in MPSC gives the entire organization access to a regional safety network. Ultimately, the value of the Exchange will depend on the people around the table—and the signals they bring with them. By expanding that table beyond traditional patient safety roles, we can build a stronger regional view of risk, learn from one another faster, and identify opportunities to prevent harm that none of us could see as clearly on our own.
The Patient Safety Exchange launches October 20 and is available to people across MPSC member organizations.
Bring what you are seeing. Together, we can determine what it means—and what to do next.