Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2011 User Comparative Report Database

When it comes to patient safety culture,  most hospitals report their strongest areas relate to teamwork within work units and supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety. Areas identified with the  most potential for improvement are non-punitive response to error, hand-offs and transition, and the number of reported events. These are the findings from an analysis of  hospitals using  the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s assessment tool,  Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.

The responses  from over 1000 hospitals that have used the survey are available in an online comparative database report. The report allows hospitals to compare their survey results with other hospitals and provides data to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. Since AHRQ has been collecting the survey data since 2007, time trending data is also available. The data is analyzed by hospital characteristics [bed size, teaching status, ownership type, geographic region] and by respondent characteristics [work area/unit, staff position, and patient interaction level].

The survey database report includes data on 42 measure in 12 key areas of patient safety culture:

1. Communication openness
2. Feedback and communication about error
3. Frequency of events reported
4. Hand-offs and transitions
5. Management support for patient safety
6. Non-punitive response to error
7. Organizational learning and continuous learning
8. Overall perceptions of patient safety
9. Staffing
10. Supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety
11. Teamwork across units
12. Teamwork within units

Source:  Sorra J and others. Hospital survey on patient safety culture: 2011 user comparative database report. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospsurvey11/

Also available:

Sorra J and others. Nursing home  survey on patient safety culture: 2011 user comparative database report. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhsurvey11/

Posted by AHA Resource Center, (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org