U.S. News Considers Adding Safety Culture Metric to Evaluations

Considering the impact that safety culture surveys have on hospitals, U.S. News & World Report states that it may develop a metric related to these surveys, according to an article published on January 8, 2014. The article states that the metric would be “in absence of hospital-specific results,” but may include a positive mark for hospitals that participate in a validated patient safety culture survey, conduct the survey at the unit level, have an adequate response rate, and develop an action plan in response to the survey findings. Safety culture surveys have been growing in popularity, particularly since they have been shown to be closely related to improved outcomes.