New report shows strengths and areas for improvement in nursing homes

AHRQ's first report on nursing home safety culture shows that 86 percent of nursing home staff participating in a survey on safety culture feel that residents are well cared for and safe. The report also shows that just over half of staff (51 percent) reported that they feel safe reporting mistakes. The report, Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2011 User Comparative Database Report, offers a comparative assessment of 16,155 staff responses from 226 U.S. nursing homes to AHRQ's Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture.

The new report also includes supplemental information that can help survey users understand how to compare their results to other survey users and prioritize and target improvement efforts. In addition, overall survey results are presented by nursing home characteristics such as size and ownership and respondent characteristics such as job titles, work areas, direct patient contact, and shift worked.

The Web-only report is available at Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture .