The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released results from the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture, which is an expansion of AHRQ's Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.
The medical office survey is designed to measure the culture of patient safety in medical offices from the perspective of providers and staff. The medical office survey includes 38 items that measure 10 composites of organizational culture pertaining to patient safety, including communication about error, office processes and standardization, patient care tracking and overall perceptions of patient safety and quality.
The 2012 database consists of data from 23,679 medical office staff respondents from 934 participating medical offices. Here are the most notable findings:
Strengths and weaknesses
• Respondents reported the highest positive response rate for teamwork (84 percent) and patient care tracking/follow-up (82 percent).
• The work pressure and pace composite saw the lowest positive response rate (46 percent). This composite is defined as the extent to which there are enough staff and providers to handle the office patient load, and the office work pace is not hectic.
Medical office make-up
• Medical offices with one or two providers had the highest average percent positive on all 10 patient safety culture composites.
• Medical offices with 14 to 19 providers had the lowest average percent positive on all 10 patient safety culture composites (57 percent).
• Single specialty medical offices had a higher average percent positive response than multispecialty medical offices on all 10 patient safety culture composites.
• Community health center and provider- and/or physician-owned medical offices had the highest average percent positive response across the composites (72 percent).
View the 2012 Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture in full by clicking here.
The medical office survey is designed to measure the culture of patient safety in medical offices from the perspective of providers and staff. The medical office survey includes 38 items that measure 10 composites of organizational culture pertaining to patient safety, including communication about error, office processes and standardization, patient care tracking and overall perceptions of patient safety and quality.
The 2012 database consists of data from 23,679 medical office staff respondents from 934 participating medical offices. Here are the most notable findings:
Strengths and weaknesses
• Respondents reported the highest positive response rate for teamwork (84 percent) and patient care tracking/follow-up (82 percent).
• The work pressure and pace composite saw the lowest positive response rate (46 percent). This composite is defined as the extent to which there are enough staff and providers to handle the office patient load, and the office work pace is not hectic.
Medical office make-up
• Medical offices with one or two providers had the highest average percent positive on all 10 patient safety culture composites.
• Medical offices with 14 to 19 providers had the lowest average percent positive on all 10 patient safety culture composites (57 percent).
• Single specialty medical offices had a higher average percent positive response than multispecialty medical offices on all 10 patient safety culture composites.
• Community health center and provider- and/or physician-owned medical offices had the highest average percent positive response across the composites (72 percent).
View the 2012 Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture in full by clicking here.
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