In today’s healthcare environment, ensuring patient safety is more than just a priority — it’s a fundamental component of quality care. Establishing a strong patient safety culture within hospitals and health organizations can dramatically reduce errors, increase patient satisfaction and improve overall healthcare outcomes. But what exactly is a patient safety culture, and how can institutions cultivate it effectively?  This blog post explores the five key components that make up a robust patient safety culture, along with insights from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and The Joint Commission.  What is patient safety culture?  AHRQ defines patient safety culture as how an organization's culture supports and promotes patient safety. This can extend to multiple levels, from individual units to departments to system levels. The AHRQ patient safety culture survey encompasses the shared values, beliefs and norms of healthcare practitioners and staff that...

  The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ polls staff for their opinions every two years. That is an eternity inside facilities where big changes can happen fast: from patient referral trends to quality improvement focus to workforce turnover. With all these demands, it’s easy for safety and culture to become just words and the importance of the SOPS® to lapse over time — among those who administer it and those who complete it (or don’t). With creative ideas and proven response rate tactics , hospitals can use the SOPS® survey to reinforce positive awareness and participation, support more patient safety activities and promote efforts that celebrate wins and build on successes.  1. Raise patient safety and survey awareness among staff Relevant, fresh communications are important, so frame each survey as a new opportunity to elevate patient safety. Awareness campaigns can promote time blocks to complete the survey and quick survey wi...

Survey results are meaningless without actionable insights. And when the highest levels of quality care and accreditation are on the line, actionable survey results are an absolute must for your hospital. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) suggests you collect the right data from the right people at the right time. Response rates must be high and survey answers meaningful. But these recommendations make SOPS a resource-heavy project. Cumbersome and time-consuming, key insights can be overlooked, and it can be hard to develop action plans to enhance patient and worker safety efforts, especially across two-year survey intervals. It doesn’t have to be that way. Start your SOPS process off right with these tips, including support from the right survey administration partner: DataGen . 1. Make strong, early survey decisions. AHRQ states a 60% response rate is required to obtain an accurate representation of the culture of safety in yo...

Doing something the way you’ve always done it gets you the results you’ve always gotten. When it comes to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Survey on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®), is that enough? Not in today’s competitive, post-COVID-19 market. Your SOPS® scores matter far beyond basic compliance with The Joint Commission and other accrediting organizations. With the public’s growing awareness of patient safety issues, an unfavorable reputational impact can quickly spread across the patient and provider community. Here are five secrets designed to help you get better SOPS® insights, improve your scores and transform your organization. Start by asking yourself a few simple, direct questions: What is your current SOPS® response rate? Is it near the minimum required response of 60%? Has your hospital’s rate stayed in the same stubborn response range for multiple survey cycles? “One and done” will get you nowhere. Results are only worthwhile if your staff can easily subm...