Purpose and Use of This Report

In response to requests from hospitals interested in comparing their results against other hospitals on the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) established the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database. The first comparative database report was released in 2007 and was comprised of data from 382 U.S. hospitals that administered the AHRQ patient safety culture survey to 108,621 hospital staff and voluntarily submitted their data for inclusion in this new database.

The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture 2008 Comparative Database Report is an update of the 2007 report. The 2008 report consists of data from a total of 519 hospitals and 160,176 hospital staff respondents who completed the survey. The hospitals in the 2008 report fall into three categories:

• 284 hospitals from the 2007 report that are still included in the 2008 report;
• 98 hospitals from the 2007 report that conducted a follow-up survey of their staff; older data from these hospitals was replaced by data from their follow-up survey so the database reflects their most recent survey data; and
• 137 hospitals that submitted data for the first time.

Because hospitals will not necessarily administer the hospital patient safety culture survey every single year, but may administer it on an 18-month, 24-month, or other administration cycle, 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 2012.

The comparative database report was developed as a tool for the following purposes:

• Comparison—To allow hospitals to compare their patient safety culture survey results to other hospitals.
• Assessment and Learning—To provide data to hospitals to facilitate internal assessment and learning in the patient safety improvement process.
• Supplemental Information—To provide supplemental information to help hospitals identify their strengths and areas with potential for improvement in patient safety culture.
• Trending—To provide data that describe changes in patient safety culture over time.

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. In addition, the 2008 report includes a new chapter on trending that describes patient safety culture change over time for the 98 hospitals that submitted data from their previous and most recent safety culture surveys.

Appendixes A and B present overall results by hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, ownership and control, region) and respondent characteristics (hospital work area/unit, staff position, interaction with patients).

Appendix A—Results by Hospital Characteristics

• Bed size.
• Teaching status.
• Ownership and control.
• Geographic region.

Appendix B—Results by Respondent Characteristics

• Work area/unit.
• Staff position.
• Interaction with patients.

Appendix C shows trends over time for the 98 hospitals that administered the survey and submitted data twice. Average percent positive scores from the most recent and previous administrations are shown on the survey composites and items, broken down by respondent characteristics.

Appendix C—Trending Results by Respondent Characteristics

• Work area/unit.
• Staff position.
• Interaction with patients.

Note: Because there were fewer than 20 hospitals in the most hospital breakout categories, trending results are not shown by hospital characteristics to ensure hospital confidentiality.

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