Virginia Health System uses AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® to improve quality of care (June 2025)

Summary

Riverside Health System, based in Newport News, VA, has been using the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS) for nearly a decade, administering surveys annually to all team members. As a result of the data collected from the surveys, changes have been implemented to improve patient safety at Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester, VA, including a new tool for handling hospital handoffs. Safety culture survey responses in all categories also improved.

SOPS surveys can be used in hospitals, medical offices, nursing homes, community pharmacies, and ambulatory surgery centers to ask healthcare providers and other staff about their organizational culture’s support for patient safety. Results of the surveys can then be used to improve areas that affect patient safety. SOPS survey questions are related to teamwork, staffing, response to error, communication, and handoffs and information exchange, among others.