Developing and continuously improving a culture of safety is critical to patient and worker engagement and improving overall health care quality. Safety culture is viewed as an organization’s shared perceptions, beliefs, values, and attitudes that influence actions and behaviors to minimize harm. It is an environment that balances accountability and support for reporting errors without fear of retaliation or reprimand.

 

High reliability organizations, which experience fewer than expected adverse events despite highly hazardous, complex operations, prioritize a robust safety culture.

 

Measurement is a critical step towards improving patient safety culture and worker safety. Surveys can assess the perception of providers and staff with respect to the culture of safety. These surveys can provide organizations with rich insights, identify strengths and challenges to advancing patient safety, and provide baseline measurements for initiatives.

 

GNYHA Safety Culture Survey Initiative

As a member service, the GNYHA Safety Culture Survey Initiative helps hospitals to administer the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ Hospital Survey 2.0 (HSOPS 2.0) and the optional Workplace Safety Supplemental Items at their facilities. GNYHA also supports hospitals in addressing the survey results, providing resources and tools for performance improvement in priority areas that are reflected in the results.

 

Participating hospitals receive the following resources and support before, during, and after survey administration:

• Promotional materials and marketing templates to engage staff
• Support and strategies to increate response rates
• Web-based survey with unique link and customized unit lists for each facility
• Real-time response rate dashboards
• Data management-gathering data and data cleaning, analysis, and reporting
• Comprehensive online and Excel reports with subgroup comparisons and national and GNYHA benchmarks
• Executive Summary on how your hospital(s) performed
• Dedicated performance improvement support to address survey results