You Are Here: AHRQ Home > Quality & Patient Safety > Medical Errors & Patient Safety > Patient Safety Culture Surveys > Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture

Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture

In response to medical offices interested in a survey that focuses on patient safety culture in their offices, AHRQ sponsored the development of the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture. This survey is designed specifically for outpatient medical office providers and staff and asks for their opinions about the culture of patient safety and health care quality in their medical offices.

The survey was designed for medical offices with at least three providers (physicians, either M.D. or D.O.; physician assistants; nurse practitioners; and other providers licensed to diagnose medical problems, treat patients, and prescribe medications). Survey administration in solo practitioner or two-provider offices is not recommended. In small offices, rather than administering the survey, it can be used as a tool to initiate open dialog or discussion about patient safety and quality issues among providers and staff.

Medical Office Survey Toolkit

Survey Form

Medical Office Survey Form (PDF File, 183 KB [PDF Help]; Word® File, 235 KB)

Survey Items and Dimensions

Medical Office Items and Dimensions (PDF File, 140 KB [PDF Help]; Word® File, 80 KB)

Survey User's Guide

The User's provides a general overview of the issues and major decisions involved in conducting a survey and reporting the results. The Guide includes information on getting started, selecting a sample, determining data collection methods, establishing data collection procedures, conducting a Web-based survey, and preparing and analyzing data, and producing reports.

Medical Office Survey User's Guide (PDF File, 1.2 MB [PDF Help]; Word® File, 1 MB)

Medical Office Survey Feedback Report Template

Template (PowerPoint® File, 423 KB; Text Version)—Can be customized to display survey results. .

Comparative Database

At this time, there is no central repository for medical offices to submit data for benchmarking purposes. However, similar to the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database, AHRQ plans to support an annual U.S. comparative database on the medical office survey which will provide more extensive comparative data. More details will be forthcoming from AHRQ about when data submission will begin and when the new comparative results will be available.

2008 Preliminary Comparative Results: Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PDF File, 550 KB)—Preliminary benchmarks are provided for the items and safety culture dimensions on the AHRQ Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture to allow medical offices to compare their survey results against the results from 182 medical offices that participated in a pilot test of the survey in the U.S. in late 2007.
Background Questions for Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PDF File, 160 KB)—Questions to be completed for each medical office submitting data to the AHRQ Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture Comparative Database (when the database has been established). This document is found in Appendix B of the Survey User Guide.

Data Entry and Analysis Tool

This data entry and analysis tool works with Microsoft® Excel® and makes it easy to input your individual-level data from the survey. The tool then automatically creates tables and graphs to display your survey results. To request the tool, send an E-mail to: databasesonsafetyculture@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Current as of March 2009

Internet Citation:

Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture. March 2009. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/patientsafetyculture/mosurvindex.htm