Staffing and Communication Openness Need Most Improvement, Finds AHRQ Nursing Home Culture Survey

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released its 2019 Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture (SOPS) Database Report, presenting data from 191 nursing homes and 10,499 nursing home providers and staff who completed the survey between January 2016 and July 2018 and submitted data to the Nursing Home SOPS database. The survey addresses 12 areas or composite measures of patient safety culture, such as communication, procedural compliance, handoffs, management support for resident safety, teamwork, and staffing. "Overall perceptions of resident safety" and "feedback and communication about incidents" were among the top areas of strength (indicated by an 85% positive score), and "staffing" and "communication openness" were identified as needing improvement (46% and 55% positive scores, respectively). This year's report also analyzed data based on respondent and nursing home characteristics, such as facility bed count, census region, work shifts (days and nights), and job title.