In response to interest from hospitals using the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has established the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database as a central repository for survey data from hospitals that have administered the AHRQ patient safety culture survey instrument.
Contents
Purpose of the Database
Benefits of Participation and Database Products
Participation Requirements
Timeline and Activities
May 1 to June 30: Registration and Data Submission
July to November: Data Processing and Annual Comparative Database Report Produced
Contact Information
Purpose of the Database
- To gather data from the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture into a central repository to serve as an important resource for hospitals. Hospitals can compare their patient safety culture survey results with those of other hospitals in support of patient safety culture improvement efforts.
- To produce average scores and percentiles on the survey items and composites, to help hospitals assess their own results to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in patient safety culture.
- To track change in patient safety culture over time when hospitals submit to the database more than once.
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Benefits of Participation and Database Products
- Aggregate hospital-level statistics (averages, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores, and percentiles) on the patient safety culture areas or composites and items assessed are available free to the public in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2008 Comparative Database Report at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospsurvey08/. The document does not include any information identifying participating hospitals.
- Additional database breakouts 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 2008 Comparative Database Report.
- The comparative database will be a "rolling" benchmark that retains data from prior years when a hospital does not have new data to submit, replaces older data with more recent data when it is available, and adds new data from hospitals submitting for the first time. The comparative database report will be produced yearly through at least 2011.
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Participation Requirements
- To be eligible to participate in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database, a hospital or health system must have completed administration of the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture by June 30 of a given submission year. The survey must have been administered in its entirety without significant modifications or deletions.
- 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.
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Timeline and Activities
May 1 to June 30: Registration and Data Submission
- Step 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 E-mail with "Hospital Database" in the subject line to DatabasesOnSafetyCulture@ahrq.hhs.gov.
- Step 2: Database staff send registration information to interested submitters.
- Step 3: Hospitals, health systems, or vendors submitting on behalf of hospitals complete registration information.
- Step 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.
- Step 5: Eligible hospitals, health systems, or vendors are:
- Given data specifications for formatting data files for submission.
- Asked to provide additional hospital information.
- Asked to sign a Data Use Agreement (PDF File, 145 KB; PDF Help), which assures their confidentiality and explains how their data will be used (Accessibility Notice).
- Step 6: Eligible hospitals, health systems, or their survey vendors submit individual-level survey data and other required information about their institutions.
- Data are submitted using a secure, Web-based system.
- Data files must meet data specifications.
The deadline for submission of all information and survey data files for any given submission year is June 30.
July to November: Data Processing and Annual Comparative Database Report Produced
- The data submitted will be processed, and averages, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores, and percentiles will be produced.
- Additional 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) will be produced.
- Trend results showing patient safety culture change over time for resubmitting hospitals will be presented.
- A Comparative Database Report based on the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture items and composites will be made available without cost in the public domain on the AHRQ Web site and in a limited number of printed copies.
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Contact Information
If you are interested in participating in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database, send an E-mail to: DatabasesOnSafetyCulture@ahrq.hhs.gov with your complete contact information and "Hospital Database" in the subject line.
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Current as of March 2008
Internet Citation:
Hospital Comparative Database Submission Information. Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. March 2008. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospsurveydb/y2dbsubmission.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850