For the purposes of the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture, the survey was designed to measure the culture of patient safety in medical offices with the following characteristics:
- A medical office should be an outpatient facility in a specific location. A medical practice or health care system may have multiple medical offices in different locations, but each unique location would be considered a separate medical office for survey administration and feedback.
- A medical office could be located in a building containing multiple medical offices, but each office in the building would be considered a separate medical office for the purposes of the survey.
- Providers in a single medical office should share some or all administrative staff, such as receptionists and schedulers, and share some or all clinical support staff.
These characteristics are essential because the survey asks respondents about patient safety and quality issues for a specific medical office location. The survey can be administered to multiple medical offices within a practice, health care system, or building, but each medical office would have to be identified as a separate office rather than being surveyed as one entity.
