Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): AHRQ recently released a report analyzing results from its Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. The report is based on data from nearly 400 U.S. hospitals. This 2008 Comparative Database Report provides results that hospitals can use as benchmarks in establishing a culture of safety. It consists of a narrative description of the findings and two appendixes, presenting data by hospital characteristics and respondent characteristics.
The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was first released in 2004 from AHRQ. They developed a tool to help hospitals evaluate how well they had established a culture of safety in their institutions. A benchmarking database was also needed so hospitals and units in hospitals could determine how well they were doing in establishing a culture of safety in comparison to other, similar hospitals or hospital units.
The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2008 Comparative Database Report meets that need. Based on data provided voluntarily by nearly 400 U.S. hospitals, the Report provides an initial set of results that hospitals can use as benchmarks in establishing a culture of safety in comparison to other, similar hospitals or hospital units.
The results from the report can be used as a basis for comparison in their efforts to establish, improve, and maintain a culture of patient safety in their institutions.
The body of the report presents statistics (averages, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores and percentiles) on the patient safety culture areas or composites assessed in the survey as well as the survey’s items. Appendixes A and B present breakouts of the data by hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, ownership and control, region) and respondent characteristics (hospital work area/unit, staff position, interaction with patients).
In the future, another round of voluntary data collection is planned to update the database with results from additional hospitals and evidence of change in the initial hospital set.