2012 User Comparative Database Report: Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture

2012 User Comparative Database Report: Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture

New AHRQ Report Finds Teamwork and Follow-Up to be Strengths of Medical Offices but Work Pressure and Pace to be Problematic

New comparative results from the AHRQ Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture show that teamwork and patient care tracking/follow-up are strengths for medical offices, but work pressure and pace is an area for improvement. Most (84%) medical office staff feel they have good teamwork among staff and providers and that the office follows up with patients appropriately (82%). But only 46 percent of staff rated the work pressure and pace in their office positively.

The first edition of the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2012 User Comparative Database Report provides results from 23,679 staff from 934 U.S. medical offices. The report enables medical offices to compare their patient safety culture scores with other U.S. medical offices. The full report contains detailed comparative data on the survey by number of providers, specialty, ownership, region, and by staff position.

The survey is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/patientsafetyculture/mosurvindex.htm  and can be used by medical offices, health systems and researchers to assess the opinions of medical office staff about patient safety issues and overall quality of care. It measures 10 areas of patient safety culture as well as overall ratings on quality and patient safety.