Participating in the SOPS Nursing Home Survey Database

The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Nursing Home Database is a central repository for survey data from nursing homes in the United States or in a U.S. territory that administered the SOPS Nursing Home Survey and choose to submit their data. The SOPS Nursing Home Database Report presents aggregated results for all participating nursing homes as well as results by nursing home and respondent characteristics. Each participating nursing home also receives a feedback report comparing their results with the Database.

The survey is designed to be used in facilities that have long term care beds or short stay beds or offer rehabilitation services, including nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities. It is not designed for use in independent living facilities, assisted living facilities, or community care facilities.

Upcoming Data Submission

• The next data submission dates will be announced in 2026.
• Nursing homes may submit data from the SOPS Nursing Home Survey: 
  • Version 2.0 (released April 2025) .
  • Version 1.0.
  • Workplace Safety Supplemental Items for nursing homes.

How To Participate in the Database

Organizations that want to participate in the SOPS Nursing Home Survey Database will be asked to register for an account and provide the following information:

• Medicare Provider ID and nursing home characteristics. 
• A copy of the survey(s) actually administered for review and approval. 
• Data Use Agreement, which assures nursing homes about the confidentiality of their data and explains how their data will be used. 
• Respondent-level survey data following the appropriate data file specifications for each nursing home site. 
  • Each nursing home, including those from a system, is considered a separate nursing home for submission purposes and must be submitted with a unique site identification number.

Visit the Nursing Home Survey Database Submission System for additional information and specifications and to register to submit data.

Benefits of Participating

Organizations that contribute their data to the Nursing Home Survey Database will receive:

• Access to free technical assistance to answer any questions and help with data submission.
• A private, customized feedback report that compares their survey results with overall findings aggregated across all organizations in the database.
• Access to database products, including:
  • The SOPS Nursing Home Survey Database Report that provides overall findings and results by nursing home characteristics and staff respondent characteristics.
  • The SOPS Nursing Home Data Entry and Analysis Tool, which enables users to enter their survey data and automatically create tables and graphs of the survey results.
  • Research datasets that provide de-identified data for approved research purposes.

Requirements To Participate in the Database

The AHRQ SOPS Nursing Home Database accepts data from the:

• SOPS Nursing Home Survey Versions 2.0 or 1.0 , with or without the Nursing Home Workplace Safety Supplemental Items.

Core survey items are in Sections A-E in the SOPS Nursing Home Survey Version 2.0 and 1.0. The core does not include the background questions at the end of the survey.

All submissions of survey data to the SOPS Nursing Home Database must comply with the following guidelines: 

• The SOPS Nursing Home Survey (Versions 2.0 or 1.0) must be administered in its entirety without any changes or deletions to the item text and/or response options of the core survey (Sections A-E). 
• The core survey items cannot be reordered. 
• All definitions of terms, subheadings, and instructions must be included in the survey. 
• Changes can only be made to the background questions at the end of the surveys.
  • If background questions are changed, they need to be cross-walked back to the original survey categories before submitting data.
  • Background questions may be removed.

Nursing homes that administer the SOPS Nursing Home Survey Versions 2.0 or 1.0 with the SOPS Nursing Home Workplace Safety Supplemental Items must comply with the following guidelines:

• Any SOPS Nursing Home supplemental items included by your facility must be inserted at the end of the core survey (after section E) and before the background questions. 
• No changes can be made to the text of the supplemental items and/or response options.
• All composite measures and single item measures within the Workplace Safety Supplemental Items can be administered, or only a subset of the measures can be administered.
  • A subset of the supplemental measures would include: 
    • Selected composite measures. 
      • However, ALL items within the selected composite measures must be administered. 
    • Selected single item measures. 
      • You can include or delete any single item measures. 
  • Selected supplemental items must not be reordered. 
• All definitions of terms, subheadings (re-lettering sections as needed), and instructions from the supplemental items must be included in the survey. 

To determine whether a survey is acceptable for submission to the SOPS Nursing Home Database prior to survey administration, email a copy of the survey to the SOPS Database team for review.

Contact Information

For free technical assistance and support, contact the SOPS Database team:

Email: DatabasesOnSafetyCulture@westat.com
Phone: 1-888-324-9790.