Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2009 Comparative Database Report

Based on data from over 600 U.S. hospitals, the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2009 Comparative Database Report provides initial results that hospitals can use as benchmarks in establishing a culture of safety. In addition, the 2009 report presents results showing change over time for 204 hospitals that submitted data more than once. The report consists of a narrative description of the findings and four appendixes, presenting data by hospital characteristics and respondent characteristics for the database hospitals overall and separately for the 204 trending hospitals

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In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, 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 that 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: 2009 Comparative Database Report meets that need. Based on data provided voluntarily by more than 600 U.S. hospitals, the Report provides results that hospitals can use as one 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 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). Appendixes C and D show trends over time for the 204 hospitals that administered the survey and submitted data more than once. The average percent positive scores are shown for the composites and items, broken down by hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, ownership and control) and respondent characteristics (hospital work area/unit, staff position, interaction with patients).

Another round of voluntary data collection is planned to update the database with results from additional hospitals. Select for Hospital Comparative Database Submission Information.

Contents

Executive Summary
Purpose and Use of This Report
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Survey Administration Statistics
Chapter 3. Characteristics of Participating Hospitals
Chapter 4. Characteristics of Respondents
Chapter 5. Overall Results
Chapter 6. Comparing Your Results
Chapter 7. Trending: Comparing Results Over Time
Chapter 8. What's Next? Action Planning for Improvement
References
Notes: Description of Data Cleaning and Calculations
List of Tables
List of Charts

Appendixes A and B—Overall Results by Hospital and Respondent Characteristics
Appendix A: Results by Hospital Characteristics
Appendix B: Results by Respondent Characteristics

Appendix C and D—Trending Results by Hospital and Respondent Characteristics
Appendix C: Trending Results by Hospital Characteristics
Appendix D: Trending Results by Respondent Characteristics

Page last reviewed April 2009
Internet Citation: Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2009 Comparative Database Report. April 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://archive.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/patientsafetyculture/hospital/2009/index.html