Recent AHA report links workplace safety measures to a better patient experience.
Physicians, nurses and healthcare staff are the foundation of the healthcare system, and delivering the best care starts with prioritizing the individuals who provide it.
Positive patient outcomes rely heavily on an investment in the safety and well-being of healthcare staff themselves, as supporting their health directly impacts quality of patient care.
A recent report from the American Hospital Association “Improvement in Safety Culture Linked to Better Patient and Staff Outcomes” highlights that hospitals and health systems fostering a culture of safety in their facilities also reported increased positive healthcare experiences for patients.
The AHA, along with data from the Press Ganey National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) dataset from 2025, compiles statistics into a report from 25,652 units and 2,430 inpatient acute care hospitals across the nation.
Since the release of a previous September 2024 AHA report, developed in collaboration with Vizient, notable improvements have been observed across patient care, healthcare workforce experience, patient safety measures and overall hospital safety culture.
In 2025, 13 million patients and nearly 2 million members of the health care workforce reported improvements in safety, care quality and resilience. Alongside improvements in safety culture and patient and employee experience, this year’s report emphasizes that a positive work environment for healthcare staff fostering communication, safety, and job satisfaction has been linked to higher rates of patient satisfaction.
People caring for people
Patient safety, patient experience, workforce experience and well-being are all tied together by a hospital or health system’s culture of safety, according to the AHA report. Across clinical settings, the single largest driver of a patient’s reported experience of care has been shown to be how well care team members work together.
The cornerstone of healthcare involves people caring for other people, the AHA noted, highlighting the importance of supporting the well-being of healthcare workforce within the context of better patient health outcomes.
As the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, the healthcare workforce itself is beginning to rebound as well. Hospitals are performing at or better than pre-pandemic levels on multiple measures of quality and patient safety that reflect more efficient work led by nurses to care for patients. Press Ganey data from more than 1 million members of the health care workforce show a rebound from pandemic decreases in engagement, resilience and safety culture.
Mortality and healthcare-associated infections rates are also improving while hospitals care for more patients with increasingly significant health care needs.
Analysis of key measures in data related to catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), central line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), falls and pressure injuries, reveal that the incidence of all measures have declined since their pandemic peaks, and nearly all measures across all units are back to or better than pre-pandemic levels.
A culture of safety
Patients themselves have reported increased attentiveness to team dynamics and interpersonal capabilities within clinical settings. Press Ganey data showed that when patients were asked about their confidence in the care they received and their willingness to recommend a hospital to others, individuals across care settings ranked hospitals higher when they perceived the hospital team to be working well together and were attentive to the patients’ needs and questions, according to the AHA report.
A critical factor in generating both better patient outcomes and care team engagement at work is a strong safety culture. A culture of safety is one where both physicians and patients experience effective teamwork and communication, where everyone can speak up and feel confident that improvements occur when issues are reported, and that any issues that arise are dealt with fairly.
Hospitals that were top performers in engagement also were shown to have a strong culture of safety, with 51.5% of hospitals with a high safety culture score being shown to have a 95 percentile rank difference in employee engagement from those that had a low safety culture score, according to the AHA.
A strong culture of safety serves to support clinical teams through the demanding tasks associated with care delivery. When staff feel supported and safe at work, it results in a notable difference in how patients experience their care, thus leading to safer care and a more resilient care delivery system.
Better patient outcomes
Better teamwork among healthcare workers has been shown to drive better patient outcomes. According to the AHA, an energized and engaged workforce improves the overall quality of care provided to patients, the physical and psychological well-being of patients, and patient perception of the healthcare workforce’s ability to keep them safe.
Steady gains in patient perceptions have been shown both in relation to experience of care and safety of care, up after a drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show hospitals and health systems are on the path to returning to pre-pandemic levels of safety. Patients who perceived that their care was safe were 2.5 to 3 times more likely to recommend their hospital to others.
Improvement is an ongoing effort, according to the AHA, and hospitals must remain committed to advancing the safety and quality of care, the way in which patients experience care, and the well-being of their care teams through increased workplace safety measures.
Through the work of the American Hospital Association’s Patient Safety Initiative – which focuses on hospital safety culture, identifying and addressing disparities in healthcare outcomes, and the well-being of the workforce – hospitals and health systems are continuing to use proven safety improvement strategies across their health system to advance their work with patients.