SOPS Hospital Database Submission Information

Many hospitals using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture have expressed interest in comparing their results to other hospitals. In response, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has established the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Database. This database is a central repository for survey data from hospitals that have administered the AHRQ patient safety culture survey.

Purpose of the Database

• To gather data from the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture into a central repository.
• To produce results to help hospitals identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in their patient safety culture.
• To track change in patient safety culture over time when hospitals submit to the database more than once.

Benefits of Participation and Database Products

• Each participating hospital receives a feedback report comparing their results to the database.
• A free Database Report is produced providing aggregate hospital-level statistics. The documents do not include any information identifying participating hospitals.
• Additional results by hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, ownership and control, region) and respondent characteristics (hospital work area/unit, staff position, interaction with patients) are also available in the most recent Database Report.

Participation Requirements

• All types of hospitals are eligible, from acute care to rehabilitation and psychiatric hospitals, but the hospital must be located in the United States or in a U.S. territory.
• The survey must have been administered in its entirety without modifications or deletions. Your survey will not be accepted if:
  • You made changes to any of the survey item text and/or response options.
  • You reordered the survey items.
  • You deleted one or more survey items.
  • You added questions within the core survey, before the demographic questions in Section H.

Timeline and Activities

 Registration and Data Submission

1. Hospitals, health systems or survey vendors that have administered the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture indicate their interest in participating in the database by sending an Email with "Hospital Database" in the subject line to DatabasesOnSafetyCulture@westat.com.
2. Database staff send registration information to interested submitters.
3. Hospitals, health systems, or vendors submitting on behalf of hospitals complete registration information.
4. Database staff review the registration information and request a copy of the survey(s) actually administered. Interested submitters are notified regarding their eligibility for participation.
5. Eligible hospitals, health systems, or vendors:
   
   1. Should follow these survey data specifications (PDF, 90.9 KB) for formatting respondent-level data files for submission.
   2. Provide Medicare Provider ID and hospital characteristics such as bed size, ownership, and teaching status. American Hospital Association (AHA)-registered hospitals must provide AHA ID. Follow these specifications (PDF, 40.8 KB) to gather hospital characteristics.
   3. Sign a Data Use Agreement (PDF, 273 KB), which assures hospitals about the confidentiality of their data and explains how their data will be used.
6. Eligible hospitals, health systems, or their survey vendors submit respondent-level survey data and other required information about their institutions.
   
   1. Data are submitted using a secure, Web-based system.
   2. Data files must meet data specifications.

Data Processing and Database Report Produced

• The data submitted are processed, and averages, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores, and percentiles are produced.
• Additional results 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, tenure within work area/unit) are produced.
• Trend results showing patient safety culture change over time for resubmitting hospitals are presented.
• The 2018 Hospital Database Report presents data from 630 U.S. hospitals, as well as a chapter on trending that presents results showing change over time for 306 hospitals that administered the survey and submitted data more than once. The report consists of a narrrative description of the findings and appendixes, presenting data by hospital characteristics and respondent characteristics for the database hospitals overall and separately for the 306 trending hospitals. The report contains data voluntarily submitted by participating hospitals and is not representative of all U.S. hospitals.

Contact Information

If you are interested in participating in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Database, send an Email to: DatabasesOnSafetyCulture@westat.com with your complete contact information and "Hospital Database" in the subject line.

For technical assistance on data submission, call 1-888-324-9790.