Enhancing Patient Safety: Understanding and Leveraging a Unit Safety Score for Improved Outcomes

December 11, 2024

The Unit Safety Score provides a comprehensive, weighted measure of inpatient safety performance by tracking eleven key domains across harm and best practice events. Calculated on a rolling three-month basis, the score is designed to help health care nursing units identify and address preventable patient safety issues, ensuring accountability and continuous improvement. Each domain is weighted to reflect its importance in patient safety, with harm events indicating hospital-acquired risks and best practice events highlighting preventive actions. To maintain a patient-centered approach, the score also tracks the number of individual patients impacted, supporting a holistic view of safety efforts and outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the Components of the Unit Safety Score
• Demonstrate the Calculation of the Weighted Unit Safety Score
• Encourage Ongoing Engagement with the Unit Safety Score for Continuous Improvement