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Robin Locke Nagele Serves on Legal Panel for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's 10th Annual Meeting of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) on April 18 in Rockville, Maryland


On April 18, 2018, Health Care Co-Chair Robin Locke Nagele was one of two legal panelists discussing "How PSOs Can Help Providers Protect Their PSWP – A Legal Perspective," at the Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ’s) Patient Safety Organization Annual Meeting in Rockville, MD.

The panel was moderated by Andrea Timashenka, Esquire, Senior Attorney, Office of General Counsel, DHHS. Ms. Nagele’s co-speaker was Paul Dwyer, Esquire. Based on a hypothetical fact pattern, the panelists were asked to share their legal perspectives on a variety of interpretive issues related to the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA), including: 

  • Best practices for assisting providers in creating a provider Patient Safety Evaluation System (PSES) to gain maximum privilege protection.
  • What to do once the provider is creating and reporting PSWP to the PSO (e.g., identifying/marking information as PSWP, documenting information as in the PSES).
  • Forms of assistance that PSOs can render to their provider-members once litigation commences and records are requested or subpoenaed (e.g., documentation, affidavits, amicus briefs).

AHRQ is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America's health care system. AHRQ develops the knowledge, tools, and data needed to improve the health care system and help Americans, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed health decisions. It is responsible for the initial and continued listing of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) under the PSQIA.