Patient safety and healthcare facility culture go hand-in-hand. Healthcare facilities can drastically improve the safety of their patients by creating a “culture of safety” – where risks are openly acknowledged and staff are comfortable working together to prevent patient harm. Healthcare facilities are increasingly implementing surveys to assess and strengthen their culture of safety.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently published national results of patient safety culture surveys for community pharmacies, and nursing facilities. Reports for hospitals and medical offices were published in 2018, and a full report for ambulatory surgery centers is coming soon.

Regardless of your facility type, the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) program is one of the best tools for assessing how staff in your facility feel about patient safety culture. Facilities across the nation are using SOPS surveys to diagnose and assess patient safety culture challenges. Survey results are a valuable tool for prioritizing patient safety improvement efforts.

What You Can Do: An Incremental Approach

Whether you’re just learning about the SOPS program or your facility has been using SOPS surveys for years, AHRQ offers a variety of ways your facility can use survey results for improving patient safety.

Understand Common Culture Challenges

Even if your facility isn’t ready to conduct a SOPS survey, you can still use national survey results to inform your improvement priorities. Overall findings from the national surveys reveal the most common strengths and areas for improvement by facility type:

• Community pharmacies. Strengths: patient counseling and communication openness. Areas for improvement: staffing, work pressure, and pace.

• Hospitals. Strengths: teamwork within units; supervisor/manager expectations and actions for promoting patient safety; and organizational learning. Areas for improvement: nonpunitive response to error; handoffs and transitions; and staffing.

• Nursing Facilities. Strengths: overall perceptions of patient safety; feedback and communication about incidents. Areas for improvement: staffing and communication openness.

• Ambulatory Surgery Centers. Strengths: organizational learning – continuous improvement. Areas for improvement: staffing, work pressure, and pace. (Results are from pilot study only.)

Start Using the Culture Survey

AHRQ provides an extensive toolkit for implementing the SOPS survey, according to your facility type. The toolkit includes a user guide to help you get started, select a survey population, conduct the survey, analyze data, and produce reports.

Get started: SOPS Surveys

Not sure if a SOPS survey is right for you? Check out this short video about why facilities are choosing to use the survey or watch AHRQ’s Primer for New Users to learn more about what the survey has to offer.

Use Survey Results to Plan Your Next Improvement Effort

Once your facility has completed a SOPS survey, AHRQ provides instructions for comparing your facility’s results to national survey results. Comparing your facility to others may be a helpful tool for understanding your results and identifying your top areas for improvement. 

AHRQ also provides a SOPS Action Planning Tool you can use after you have analyzed your survey results. The action planning tool offers step-by-step support for documenting your goals and identifying needed resources, process and outcome measures, and timelines.

What You’ll Need

Surveys on Patient Safety Culture
The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Improvement produces one of the best tools available for assessing how staff in your facility feel about patient safety culture. The SOPS surveys are an effective way to diagnose, assess, and understand patient safety culture challenges in hospitals, nursing facilities, pharmacies and, ambulatory surgery centers.

What have you done to address this or similar safety risks? Share what you’ve learned in your organization and contribute to the ongoing learning about adverse events in Oregon through the Patient Safety Reporting Program.