Tips & Insights · January 25, 2026
Why Conduct a Culture of Safety Survey?
A strong safety culture is not accidental. It is built intentionally, measured continuously, and sustained actively. Healthcare organizations committed to high reliability and zero harm must understand how safety is experienced on the front lines - and must articulate the strategic purpose of this important feedback mechanism.
Articulating the Strategic Purpose of a Culture of Safety Survey
Healthcare organizations conducting Culture of Safety Surveys must determine "the why." Most often, organizations conduct these surveys for several tactical reasons, but communicating the strategic purpose is important.
Determining "the why" during the survey preparation phase and working with the team to develop a compelling message about safety culture and staff feedback are quintessential to a successful survey. If you have internal communications staff, seek their expertise. Some organizations even develop a unique brand for the survey.
Here are three examples of how to frame that purpose for your organization:
1. Organizational Safety Culture Objectives
Safety is at the center of everything we do. Providing world-class healthcare relies on a strong safety culture that promotes high reliability and zero harm to patients and team members. As servant leaders, our top responsibility is to foster a healthy work environment grounded in evidence-based practices. This is necessary to promote a strong learning and reporting culture for continuous improvement. Healthcare systems with a strong reporting and learning culture are known for psychological safety that encourages and rewards team members for speaking up and actively contributing to improving safety - every time, every touch.
2. The Value of a Safety Culture Survey
Conducting a safety culture survey provides a meaningful assessment of our current culture and raises awareness of the importance of safety in achieving our mission to provide world-class healthcare to every patient we have the privilege to serve. This survey, conducted at least every 18–24 months, allows our team to share their voices and opinions on safety issues, event reporting, teamwork, and open communication through a confidential, anonymous 15-minute online questionnaire. The results help us understand what matters to our team members as we continue to advance our safety culture - and provide valuable feedback on how healthy, respectful, and psychologically safe our culture is for all team members.
3. Commitment to Listening, Learning, and Action
A Culture of Safety Survey is a tangible demonstration of our commitment to listening to our team members, learning from their experiences, and taking meaningful action to improve safety. High-reliability organizations seek honest feedback and transparent dialogue. This survey provides a structured, confidential, and anonymous way for our team members to share how policies, workflows, leadership behaviors, and daily practices support or hinder safe care. By measuring our safety culture, we hold ourselves accountable as leaders to identify gaps, celebrate strengths, and partner with our teams to prioritize improvement efforts that matter most at the point of care. Listening without action erodes trust - this survey is one way we reinforce that every voice counts.
Happy Surveying!
Beterra SafeCulture
Ready to run your Culture of Safety Survey?
Beterra's SafeCulture platform makes it easy to survey, benchmark, and act on safety culture data - with built-in analytics, national benchmarks, and actionable dashboards.