2️⃣ SOPS® Beyond Scores: Boosting Safety and Patient Outcomes

Boosting safety and patient outcomes through SOPS® surveys 

A strong patient safety culture is the foundation of high-quality healthcare. Healthcare facilities must actively engage their staff in Surveys on Patient Safety Culture™ (SOPS®) to gain critical insights into safety challenges and opportunities for improvement. High participation rates lead to more reliable data, helping organizations implement meaningful changes that enhance both staff confidence and patient outcomes. Here are four ways to boost safety and patient outcomes.

Watch the second video from our six-part patient safety culture series

1. Confidentiality: A cornerstone of patient safety culture surveys 

Ensuring anonymity in SOPS® surveys is essential to fostering open and honest feedback. Employees, from environmental services, e.g. EVS technicians, janitors or housekeeping staff, to senior surgeons, need to trust that their responses are confidential. When staff feel safe sharing their concerns, leadership gains more accurate insights into areas requiring improvement. Organizations like DataGen specialize in securing anonymous data collection, strengthening trust and participation.

2. Making SOPS® surveys more accessible 

Healthcare staff are often pressed for time, making survey participation challenging. To increase response rates, organizations should: 

• offer surveys in mobile-friendly formats for easy access; 

• allow staff to pause and resume surveys at their convenience; and 

• use concise, targeted questions to streamline completion. 

By reducing barriers, healthcare institutions can gather more meaningful data to drive patient safety initiatives and improvements. 

3. Motivating staff with incentives 

Incentives can encourage higher participation in SOPS® surveys, ensuring more comprehensive data collection. Effective strategies include: 

• recognizing departments with high response rates through incentives like gift cards or team lunches; 

• publicly acknowledging engaged teams to create a culture of safety awareness; and 

• encouraging friendly competition between departments to increase engagement. 

When staff feel their voices are valued they are more likely to contribute to ongoing safety initiatives.

4. Translating survey insights into safety improvements 

Gathering survey responses is just the first step — real change happens when organizations act on their findings. To maximize patient safety improvements, leadership should: 

• implement plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycles to ensure continuous quality enhancement; 

• share updates with staff on actions taken based on survey feedback; and 

• involve employees in decision-making processes regarding patient safety measures. 

By demonstrating responsiveness and accountability, healthcare organizations can cultivate a strong patient safety culture based on trust and safety that directly benefits patient outcomes. 

Next steps to improving patient safety culture 

Maximizing staff participation in SOPS® is crucial to strengthening patient safety and improving healthcare outcomes. By ensuring confidentiality, making surveys accessible, incentivizing participation and acting on feedback, healthcare facilities can drive meaningful change across nursing homes, community pharmacies, home health/hospices, hospitals, medical offices and ambulatory surgery centers. 

Investing in a culture of safety not only boosts staff confidence but also enhances the quality of care delivered to patients. Discover how DataGen’s Culture of Safety Insights™ solution can help you achieve this. Also, leverage our “SOPS® Beyond Scores” playlist on our YouTube channel; make sure to: 

1. Watch our previous video on encouraging staff participation and its corresponding blog. 

2. Watch our next video on how to make an impact with the data you collected and its corresponding blog. 

3. Like and subscribe to our DataGen Healthcare Insights YouTube channel for future updates and series.