Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

2008 Comparative Database Report

---

Based on data from 519 U.S. hospitals, the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2008 Comparative Database Report provides results that hospitals can use as benchmarks in establishing a culture of safety. The report consists of a narrative description of the findings and two appendixes, presenting data by hospital characteristics and respondent characteristics.

Part 1 is a narrative description of the findings, with results by hospital characteristics and respondent characteristics, as well as trending results for 98 hospitals that submitted data from their previous and most recent safety culture surveys.

Part 2 contains Appendixes A, B, and C. Appendixes A and B provide data tables broken down by hospital and respondent characteristics. Appendix C shows trends over time for the 98 hospitals that administered the survey and submitted data twice, broken down by respondent characteristics.

Select to download print version (Part 1, PDF File, 200 KB; Part 2, PDF File, 195 KB). Plugin Software Help.

---

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 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: 2008 Comparative Database Report meets that need. Based on data provided voluntarily by 400 U.S. hospitals, the Report provides a set of results that hospitals can use as benchmarks in establishing a culture of safety in comparison to other, similar hospitals or hospital units.

Hospitals can use the results in the 2008 report 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's 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).

Another round of voluntary data collection is planned to update the database with results from additional hospitals and evidence of change in the initial hospital set. Select for Hospital Comparative Database Submission Information.

Contents

Summary
Purpose and Use of This Report
Comparative Database 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
Notes: Description of Data Cleaning and Calculations
Copyright Notice
List of Tables
List of Charts
Appendixes A and B—Results by Hospital and Respondent Characteristics
Appendix A: Results by Hospital Characteristics
Appendix B: Results by Respondent Characteristics
Appendix C—Trending Results by Hospital and Respondent Characteristics
Appendix C: Trending Results by Respondent Characteristics

AHRQ Publication No. 08-0039
Current as of March 2008

---

Internet Citation:

Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2008 Comparative Database Report. AHRQ Publication No. 08-0039, March 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospsurvey08/

---