Eric Hawkins, PhD, and Emily Williams, PhD, MPH (core Investigator with the VA Health Services Research and Development Seattle Center of Innovation, and Associate Professor in the department of health services), received funding from the VA National Center for Patient Safety to establish a VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry (PSCI). The goal of PSCIs is to develop, disseminate and implement clinically relevant innovations that improve patient safety in Veterans Health Administration facilities. Drs. Williams and Hawkins will co-direct the VA Puget Sound PSCI, which will focus on implementing and evaluating a stepped care approach to optimizing opioid risk mitigation strategies and office-based pharmacologic treatment for opioid use disorders in primary care. The new VA Puget Sound PSCI is one of ten Centers funded by the VA National Center for Patient Safety.