Hospitals are making gains in safety, leading to better patient and staff experiences

Five years after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have made progress in improving patient safety, according to a new American Hospital Association report.

Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, says a new report shows links between gains in patient safety, patient outcomes and staff well-being.

Along with improvements in safety, hospitals are seeing better patient outcomes and more positive experiences in their workforce, the report states. The American Hospital Association collaborated with Press Ganey on the report, which was released Wednesday.

The report comes six months after a previous American Hospital Association report that outlined gains in patient safety. Other reports examining hospital quality and patient safety have found that hospitals are generally doing a better job in protecting patients, after seeing setbacks in some safety metrics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new American Hospital Association report finds hospitals are seeing fewer patient falls and fewer infections associated with central lines and catheters.

Patients also are saying that their overall experience in the hospital is improving, according to the report. The report analyzed responses from 13 million patients.

The data shows “steady gains in their perceptions of both experience of care and safety of care after a drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report stated.

The report included an analysis of data from 1.7 million employees in hospitals and health systems, which indicated “a rise in their reported experience and resiliency.”

Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a statement, “The latest Press Ganey data highlight that care is getting safer as the experience of both patients and the health care workforce improves.”

A better safety culture is correlated with improved results for patients and a better experience for staff. “A critical factor in generating both better patient outcomes and care teams’ engagement in their work is a strong safety culture,” the report states.

It’s probably not surprising that there’s a strong relationship between a hospital’s safety culture, patient outcomes and the well-being of staff.

“Across clinical settings — the single largest driver of a patient’s reported experience of care is how well their care team members work together. Better teamwork has long been shown to drive better outcomes,” the report stated.

Chris DeRienzo, MD, chief physician executive and senior vice president for the American Hospital Association, told Chief Healthcare Executive® in a September 2024 interview that recent improvements in safety and outcomes are encouraging. The September report found improvements in patient outcomes even as hospitals are generally treating sicker patients than they did before the pandemic.

“The evidence is clear that hospitalized patients are even safer today than they were in 2019, and that holds true across numerous crucial measures of patient safety,” DeRienzo said.

Several factors play into a better safety culture, including the ability of hospital staff to speak up freely and without fear of reprisal for raising a concern related to patient safety, the report states.

Staff have to feel confident that reporting a problem is going to make a difference, and clinicians need to be treated with respect and compassion when an error occurs.

The report actually noted a slight dip in prevention and reporting from 2023 to 2024, reversing increases in previous years. “The recent downward trend highlights the need for ongoing prioritization,” the report stated.

Other recent reports have found improvements in hospital safety, even with room for more progress.

The Leapfrog Group released its Fall 2024 Hospital Safety Grades and reported a significant drop in infections and made gains in reducing medication errors, the report says. More hospitals are also making progress in improving hand hygiene.

Katie Stewart, director of health care ratings for the Leapfrog Group, told Chief Healthcare Executive® in a November interview that hospitals are faring better in some metrics compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“I think we want to continue to see those improvements in order to continue to drive change in patient safety,” she says. “But it's very promising to see these improvements across the board.”

Healthgrades also released its annual awards this week for hospitals that fared best in patient safety. Healthgrades honored 442 hospitals in 40 states, which represented the top 10% in the nation for safety.

In releasing its awards, Healthgrades said if all hospitals performed at the levels of the top 10%, hospitals could have avoided more than 100,000 patient safety events between 2021 and 2023.