There are other organizational culture and patient safety surveys; why should a hospital use the AHRQ survey?
There are several advantages of the survey. It is: • Free—available to the public. The survey was developed by AHRQ and is available free of charge. • A hospital-wide instrument. The survey was designed to be administered to all types of hospital staff, including clinical and non-clinical. It can be used to assess individual hospital units or departments, or it can be administered hospital-wide. • Reliable and valid. The survey development process was careful and rigorous, based on a review of the existing research and other culture surveys. More importantly, the survey items have demonstrated reliability and validity (for more details, refer to the survey Toolkit materials available on the AHRQ Web site at http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/hospculture/). • Comprehensive and specific. The survey covers over a dozen areas of patient safety, providing a level of detail that helps hospitals identify specific areas of strength and areas for improvement at both the unit-level and hospital level. • E
