(CHARLESTON, S.C.) -- Three hospitals in the region are participating in a new joint effort to make South Carolina hospitals safer for patients, The Post and Courier reports.

The Medical University of South Carolina, Roper St. Francis Healthcare and the VA Medical Center are all a part of the South Carolina Safe Care Commitment, which includes 20 hospitals statewide, the paper says. The joint effort complements the new federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires hospitals to increase their safety, according to The Post and Courier.

The collaboration "offers the potential to transform hospitals into far safer providers of health care in a permanent way," said Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare in a statement.

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