Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2008 Comparative Database Report

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Chart 5-2. Item-level Average Percent Positive Response—Across All 2008 Database Hospitals (Text Description)

Item Number	Survey Item (by Composite)	Average Item Percent Positive Response
[Composite 1. Teamwork within Units]
A1	1. People support one another in this unit.	84%
A3	2. When a lot of work needs to be done quickly, we work together as a team to get the work done.	85%
A4	3. In this unit, people treat each other with respect.	77%
A11	4. When one area in this unit gets really busy, others help out.	68%
[Composite 2. Supervisor/Manager Expectations and Actions Promoting Patient Safety]
B1	1. My supervisor/manager says a good word when he/she sees a job done according to established patient safety procedures.	71%
B2	2. My supervisor/manager seriously considers staff suggestions for improving patient safety.	75%
B3 R	3. Whenever pressure builds up, my supervisor/manager wants us to work faster, even if it means taking shortcuts.	74%
B4 R	4. My supervisor/manager overlooks patient safety problems that happen over and over.	76%
[Composite 3. Management Support for Patient Safety]
F1	1. Hospital management provides a work climate that promotes patient safety.	80%
F2	2. The actions of hospital management show that patient safety is a top priority.	71%
F9 R	3. Hospital management seems interested in patient safety only after an adverse event happens.	59%
[Composite 4. Organizational Learning—Continuous Improvement]
A6	1. We are actively doing things to improve patient safety	81%
A9	2. Mistakes have led to positive changes here.	62%
A13	3. After we make changes to improve patient safety, we evaluate their effectiveness.	67%
[Composite 5. Overall Perceptions of Patient Safety]
A10 R	1. It is just by chance that more serious mistakes don't happen around here.	60%
A15	2. Patient safety is never sacrificed to get more work done.	64%
A17 R	3. We have patient safety problems in this unit.	62%
A18	4. Our procedures and systems are good at preventing errors from happening.	69%
[Composite 6. Feedback and Communication About Error]
C1	1. We are given feedback about changes put into place based on event reports.	52%
C3	2. We are informed about errors that happen in this unit.	64%
C5	3. In this unit, we discuss ways to prevent errors from happening again.	70%
[Composite 7. Communication Openness]
C2	1. Staff will freely speak up if they see something that may negatively affect patient care.	76%
C4	2. Staff feel free to question the decisions or actions of those with more authority.	47%
C6 R	3. Staff are afraid to ask questions when something does not seem right.	63%
[Composite 8. Frequency of Events Reported]
D1	1. When a mistake is made, but is caught and corrected before affecting the patient, how often is this reported?	51%
D2	2. When a mistake is made, but has no potential to harm the patient, how often is this reported?	55%
D3	3. When a mistake is made that could harm the patient, but does not, how often is this reported?	73%
[Composite 9. Teamwork Across Units]
F2 R	1. Hospital units do not coordinate well with each other.	45%
F4	2. There is good cooperation among hospital units that need to work together.	58%
F6 R	3. It is often unpleasant to work with staff from other hospital units.	58%
F10	4. Hospital units work well together to provide the best care for patients.	67%
[Composite 10. Staffing]
A2	1. We have enough staff to handle the workload	54%
A5 R	2. Staff in this unit work longer hours than is best for patient care.	52%
A7 R	3. We use more agency/temporary staff than is best for patient care.	64%
A14 R	49%
[Composite 11. Handoffs and Transitions]
F3 R	1. Things "fall between the cracks" when transferring patients from one unit to another.	41%
F5 R	2. Important patient care information is often lost during shift changes.	49%
F7 R	3. Problems often occur in the exchange of information across hospital units.	42%
F11 R	4. Shift changes are problematic for patients in this hospital.	46%
[Composite 12. Nonpunitive response to Error]
A8 R	1. Staff feel like their mistakes are held against them.	51%
A12 R	2. When an event is reported, it feels like the person is being written up, not the problem.	45%
A16 R	3. Staff worry that mistakes they make are kept in their personnel file.	36%

Note: The item's survey location is shown to the left. An "R" indicates a negatively worded item, where the percent positive response is based on those who responded "Strongly disagree" or "Disagree," or "Never" or "Rarely" (depending on the response category used for the item).

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