HASP was developed for two primary reasons:

1. To apply an innovative approach to investigating nursing errors that includes a focus on human performance and systems issues, and
   
   
2. To answer the call from the Texas Senate (Senate Bill 718) to provide an alternative process for nurse error reporting systems. 

Preliminary data from the University of Texas Close Call Reporting System (www.utccrs.org), an anonymous reporting system that providers from participating institutions can use to report close calls, supports the notion that systems issues are prevalent in healthcare. HASP leverages this knowledge by incorporating an investigation of systems issues in addition to examining human performance reasons for errors.