Potential Talking Points for Dr. Linda McKibben's presentation on the Government's Role in Patient Safety include: 1) Information Dissemination - Activities related to the development of the Congressionally mandated National Report on the Quality of Healthcare and its potential impact on patient safety 2) Research - Learning from experiences with the Nosocomial Infectious Disease Program, evidence-based interventions for quality and safety improvement, and other initiatives that collect, analyze, interpret and act on patient safety information 3) Leadership/Partnerships - Working with organizations to define areas of concern and to enhance patient safety initiatives. Organizations include the DHHS Patient Safety Task Force, the National Health Care Safety Network, and other patient safety data integration into the DHHS patient safety database. 4) Oversight - Working with organizations, such as the National Quality Forum, CMS, JCAHO, and other key players to promote voluntary guidelines and appropriate regulations to enhance access to quality healthcare and reduce costs.