Chapter 4. Characteristics of Respondents

Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2010 User Comparative Database

This chapter describes respondents within the participating hospitals. The data presented here are based on respondents' answers to survey questions about the hospital work area/unit where they spent most of their work time, their staff position, and their direct interaction with patients. In the tables presented in this chapter, respondents from hospitals that omitted one of these questions, or those who did not respond, are shown as missing in the tables and are excluded from total percentages.

Highlights

  • There were 338,607 hospital staff respondents from 885 hospitals.
  • One-third of respondents (33 percent) selected "Other" as their work area, followed by "Medicine" (10 percent) and "Surgery" (9 percent).
  • More than one-third of respondents (36 percent) selected "Registered Nurse" or "Licensed Vocational Nurse/Licensed Practical Nurse (LVN/LPN)" as their staff position, followed by "Other" (21 percent) and "Technician (e.g., EKG, Lab, Radiology)" (11 percent).
  • Most respondents (76 percent) indicated they had direct interaction with patients.

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Work Area/Unit

One-third of respondents (33 percent) selected "Other" as their work area, followed by "Medicine" (10 percent) and "Surgery" (9 percent) (Table 4-1). The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture uses generic categories for hospital work areas and units. Therefore, a large percentage of respondents chose the "Other" response option that allowed them to note their specific work area or unit. Participating hospitals were not asked to submit written or "Other-specify" responses for any questions, so no data are available to further describe the respondents in the "Other" work area category. 

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Staff Position

More than one-third of respondents (36 percent) selected "Registered Nurse" or "Licensed Vocational Nurse/Licensed Practical Nurse (LVN/LPN)" as their staff position, followed by "Other" (21 percent) and "Technician (e.g., EKG, Lab, Radiology)" (11 percent) (Table 4-2). Similar to the work area/unit question, many respondents chose the "Other" response option that allowed them to note their specific staff position, but no data are available to further describe the respondents in the "Other" staff position category. 

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Interaction With Patients

The survey asked respondents whether they typically have direct interaction or contact with patients. As shown in Table 4-3, most respondents (76 percent) indicated "yes," they had direct interaction with patients.

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Page last reviewed March 2010
Internet Citation: Chapter 4. Characteristics of Respondents: Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2010 User Comparative Database. March 2010. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://archive.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/patientsafetyculture/hospital/2010/hospdb10ch4.html