The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority developed this survey to measure the level of adoption of specific patient safety practices defined in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital-Acquired Conditions, Joint Commission’s 2009 National Patient Safety Goals, National Quality Forum’s Serious Reportable Events, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Safe Practices for Better Healthcare, relevant to hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, birthing centers, and abortion facilities. While the ultimate measures of safety are the number of lives saved or the number of injuries prevented, the next best alternative is to measure whether Pennsylvania healthcare facilities have adopted practices we believe are linked with patient safety.

The Authority invited Pennsylvania healthcare facilities to measure the level of adoption of selected safety practices advocated in the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory, the Authority's quarterly publication, over the past several years. The Authority encourages sharing this survey with facility Patient Safety Committees, senior leadership, and Boards of Trustees. Each patient safety practice identified in the action agenda below includes a brief description of the patient safety measure, the Advisory issues to locate additional information and references to reduce the risk of errors, an organizational assessment, and space to identify facility-specific action and deadline. (A PDF copy of the action agenda is available below, or for an Microsoft Exel copy,  please right-click  here and select "save target as" to download a working copy).