Founded in 2019, The Institute of Patient Safety and Quality of Virtual Care is the first PSO dedicated to clinical quality and continuous improvement in virtual care.

Federally recognized PSOs create a structured, protected environment where healthcare organizations can identify risks, analyze safety events, and share insights to prevent future harm. To encourage continuous improvement, healthcare providers receive certain legal protections so that the root causes of emerging issues can be identified and addressed quickly.

BetterHelp's participation builds on the company's existing foundation of rigorous clinical standards and systems that monitor engagement signals and escalate potential concerns to licensed clinicians for structured review, enabling a level of safety and oversight that is difficult to achieve in traditional settings.

"This partnership builds on our ongoing investments in quality that help us advance outcomes, improve matching, and expand access through insurance," said Dr. Russell DuBois, Vice President of Clinical Quality, Operations and Innovation at BetterHelp. "With a network of more than 30,000 therapists on our platform, supporting millions of people around the world, and strong outcomes data, BetterHelp is in a unique position to contribute meaningful learnings at scale, and translate those insights into improvements that strengthen clinical quality, empower therapists, and elevate care delivery."

Through its participation in the PSO, BetterHelp is enhancing its ability to:

  • Strengthen patient safety and care quality by identifying new trends, uncovering process gaps, and driving continuous improvement
  • Enable more candid, insights-driven learning to continuously improve care delivery
  • Build a foundation for scalable, responsible growth, supporting broader partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem

As a PSO participant, BetterHelp will be able to review systematic patterns and safety evaluations in its clinical data. This will help to identify new opportunities to enhance the quality of care, improve outcomes, and support a more responsive experience for both providers and patients.

"As virtual mental health continues to expand, participation from organizations like BetterHelp in The Institute of Patient Safety and Quality of Virtual Care advances a learning-driven system that benefits both patients and providers by improving the quality of patient care delivery," said Peggy Binzer, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.