Background Health care organizations must create an environment in which safety is a top priority.
Patient safety is a system issue, and system changes are utilized to reduce the incidence
of preventable medical errors and adverse drug events in a blame-free environment. This
culture of safety means designing systems geared to preventing, detecting, and minimizing
hazards and the likelihood of error, and to unmask underlying system failures that result
in errors.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 8th Scope of Work (SoW) (2005-2008)
contains an initiative specific to critical access hospitals (CAHs) and rural hospitals.
It focuses on organizational culture change for patient safety. Each hospital that has
volunteered to participate in this project's Identified Participant Group (IPG) will use
the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) to identify its area(s) of focus
to improve its patient safety climate.
Methodology
The HSOPSC will be administered by each hospital for a baseline assessment to determine
its area(s) of focus for improvement.
After obtaining its survey results, each hospital will implement organizational interventions
for improvement.
Each hospital will reassess its safety culture via the survey to determine improvement.
Note: HSAG is providing assistance for all of the above interventions.
