Surveys Helps Providers Assess, Identify Improvement Opportunity

In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed its Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, a tool to help hospitals evaluate how well they had established a culture of safety in their institutions. OFMQ works with hospitals to implement the survey and use the findings for quality improvement. A similar survey for nursing homes is under development, and we expect to be assisting Oklahoma’s nursing facilities in using this tool later this year. 

Recently, AHRQ released the second of its comparative database reports that provide benchmarking data so hospitals can determine how well they are establishing a culture of safety in comparison to other, similar hospitals. Data was collected from 400 U.S. hospitals.  Some highlights from the Report are below.

Areas of Strength for Most Hospitals

Teamwork Within Units—The extent to which staff support one another, treat each other with respect, and work together as a team had the highest average percent positive response (79 percent), indicating an area of strength for most hospitals.  

Patient Safety Grade—On average, the majority of respondents within hospitals (72 %) gave their work area or unit a grade of either "A-Excellent" (24 percent) or "B-Very Good" (48 percent) on patient safety.  

Areas with Potential for Improvement for Most Hospitals

Nonpunitive Response to Error—The extent to which staff feel that their mistakes and event reports are not held against them and that mistakes are not kept in their personnel file had the lowest average percent positive response (44 percent), indicating an area with potential for improvement for most hospitals. The survey item with the lowest average percent positive response (36 percent) was: "Staff worry that mistakes they make are kept in their personnel file," (an average of only 36 percent strongly disagreed or disagreed with this item).

Number of Events Reported—On average, the majority of respondents within hospitals (52 percent) reported no events in their hospital over the past 12 months. This percentage likely represents under-reporting of events, and may indicate patient safety problems may not be recognized or identified and therefore may not be addressed.  

For more on AHRQ’s Patient Safety Culture Surveys, click here.

For more resources on Patient Safety available through AHRQ, click here.