The Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture

By Richard Shank

In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) made their Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) available to the public for the first time. Since then, this survey has been administered in hundreds of hospitals. To build on the relative success of this survey, the AHRQ has created the new Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture, designed specifically for nursing home staff to assess their views of patient safety within their nursing home.

It is common sense that patient safety is critical to the quality of care in both hospitals and nursing homes. AHRQ is hoping to build on the growing recognition that a safe therapeutic environment is best fostered by a nursing home culture that takes safety seriously. AHRQ has termed this a “safety culture” that is based on “values, attitudes, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the nursing home’s commitment to health and safety management.” They argue that a safety culture is based on communication of mutual trust, a shared understanding of the importance of safety, and an appreciation for the importance of preventive measures.

AHRQ is offering this survey on their website along with a user’s guide that outlines its development, pilot testing, and best uses.

This survey can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the status of a patient safety culture in the nursing home; as an intervention to raise staff awareness about safety issues; an evaluation of patient safety initiatives; and a tracking system that measures changes in a safety-oriented culture over time.

The survey itself measures 12 different research domains that have been shown to impact the safety of nursing home residents. These domains includes such trademarks as teamwork of staff, the staffing levels of the organization, compliance with procedures, training and skills needs, non-punitive responses to mistakes, and safety feedback and communication processes among others.

For more information, see the survey website at: http://www.ahrq.gov.

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