Hospital survey on patient safety culture in Ethiopian public hospitals: a cross-sectional study

Factors associated with self-reported medical errors among undergraduate health science students in southern Ethiopia

Introduction

Medical errors are not uncommon, but they are seldom reported. Patient safety practices are among the key areas for service improvement. This study aimed to assess factors associated with self-reported medical errors among undergraduate health science students in southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among health science students of Arba Minch University in 2018. The sample size was calculated using a single population proportion formula. A total of 287 medical students in their fourth year and above, nursing and midwifery students in their second year and above, and other health science students in their third year and above were included.

Results

The majority (82.1, 95%CI: 77.63-86.67) of the study participants had a 'good' knowledge score on patient safety. Approximately 62.5% (95%CI: 56.8-68.2) of the participants had a 'favorable' patient safety attitude. Only 38.6% (95%CI: 32.8-44.3) of the study participants had 'good' patient safety practices. At adjusted analysis, the practical attachment unit, having ever managed a patient independently, having ever witnessed harm to patients by colleagues or other healthcare workers, and having ever witnessed harm to a close friend or family member were statistically significantly associated with self-reported medical errors. Participants who were doing their practical clinical attachment in the surgical and obstetric units were three times more likely to self-report medical errors as compared to those practicing in the pediatrics, internal medicine, and other units (AOR = 2.72, 95%CI: 1.16-6.39.97). Students who had never managed a patient independently were less likely to self-report medical error (AOR = 0.24, 95%CI: 0.08-0.72). The odds of self-reporting medical errors were less among among participants who had not ever witnessed harm to patients by colleagues or other healthcare workers (AOR = 0.12, 95%CI: 0.05-0.29) and participants who had not ever witnessed harm to a close friend or family member (AOR = 0.36, 95%CI: 0.16-0.80).

Conclusion

One in five of the participants reported having harmed patients while practicing. Most of the students had good patient safety knowledge, while approximately two-thirds of the participants had a favorable attitude toward patient safety. Only 38.6% of the study participants had good patient safety practices. Having worked in surgical and obstetrics units, having managed a patient independently, and having witnessed harm to a patient were associated with self-reporting of medical errors.

Patient safety culture and associated factors among nurses working at public hospitals in Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Patient safety culture is the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care delivery. It is a vital component in the provision of quality care. In healthcare settings where there is a safety culture, the people (providers, staff, administrators, and patients/families) are engaged, encouraged, and supported to make care safer. Though it is an essential component in the provision of quality care, little is known about its level, contributory, and hindering factors from the nurses' perspectives. This study aimed to assess patient safety culture and associated factors among nurses working at public Hospitals in Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

METHODS

This institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 398 nurses working at public hospitals in Gamo Zone. Data were collected by pretested, well-structured self-administered questionnaire from June 1 to 30, 2022. The collected data were checked, coded, and entered into Epi-data version 4.6.0.2 and were exported to SPSS version 25 for analyses. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was done to identify independent factors associated with patients' safety culture.

RESULTS

This study revealed that 202(50.8%), 95% CI: (46%-56%) of the participants had indicated good patient safety culture. From factors analysis, having an educational status of a bachelor's degree and above [AOR = 2.26, 95%CI: (1.13-4.52)], working in a surgical ward [AOR = 5.48, 95%CI: (1.96-15.34)], not being blamed when medical errors happened [AOR = 3.60, 95%CI: (1.82 - 7.14)], and working 40 up to 49 h per week [AOR = 0.30, 95%CI: (0.13 - 0.74)] were identified to be significantly associated with good patient safety culture.

CONCLUSION

Based on the study findings, it could be observed that good patient safety culture was indicated only by half of the study participants. Implementing actions that support dimensions of patient safety culture, and creating opportunities for continuous educational advancement is recommended. Moreover, Hospital administrators, nurses' directors, and healthcare policy-makers should work in collaboration to improve the patient safety culture, and also it would be better to create a blame-free environment to promote event reporting practices.

Medication errors and associated factors among pediatric inpatients in public hospitals of gamo zone, southern Ethiopia

Background

Medication errors are the most common medical errors in the world. In particular, pediatric patients are more susceptible to severe injuries and death. Despite their multidimensional impact, medication errors are not recognized well in developing nations, including Ethiopia. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of medication errors and associated factors among pediatric inpatients in public hospitals of Gamo zone, southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 416 pediatric inpatients from August 1, 2020, to February 30, 2021. Open data kit tools and Stata version 16.0 were used for data collection and analysis, respectively. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify factors associated with medication errors. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was computed and a P-value of <0.05 in the multivariable analysis was set to declare statistical significance.

Results

Overall, 69.5% (95% CI: 64.80, 73.86) of pediatric inpatients experienced medication errors. Unsuitable working environment (aOR: 2.40, 95% CI: 1.48, 3.91), child weight <5 Kg (aOR: 3.72, 95% CI: 1.79, 7.73), medication administered by diploma professionals (aOR: 2.10, 95% CI: 1.31, 3.36), parent involvement (aOR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.33, 0.95), non-adherence with medication administration rights (aOR: 2.68, 95% CI: 1.32, 5.44) and hospital stay for >5 days (aOR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.15, 2.93) were significantly associated with medication errors.

Conclusion

Medication errors were high among pediatric inpatients as compared to previous national studies. To reduce the occurrences of medication errors, it is critical to create a suitable working environment, arrange education and training opportunities for providers, involve families in the medication administration process, and strictly adhere to medication administration rights.

Patient safety knowledge, attitude and practice among undergraduate health science students in South West Ethiopia

Background

Patient safety is minimizing the risk of unnecessary damage associated with healthcare to a minimum. It has been linked as a global precedence area where substantial knowledge gaps exist. Knowledge, attitude, and practice of the healthcare providers toward patient safety have a great influence on the delivery of safe patient care. Regardless of this, the issue has not been adequately addressed in Ethiopia.

Objective

The main aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, and factors associated with patient safety practice among undergraduate health science students at Jimma University Institute of Health.

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from May to November 2021. Data were collected from 678 undergraduate health science students using a pretested, structured and self-administered questionnaire. EPI data 3.1 was used for data entry, and SPSS version 25 was used for analysis. A binary logistic regression model was utilized to identify factors associated with outcome variables. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval and P < 0.05 were computed to determine the level of significance.

Results

Of the total students, only 293 (43.2%) and 308 (45.4%) had good knowledge and positive attitudes toward patient safety, respectively. Moreover, only 135 (19.9%) of the students had good practices regarding patient safety. Year of study [AOR = 3.75, 95% CI: (2.3, 9.3)], duration on practical attachment [AOR = 2.6, 95% CI: (1.2, 5.9)], and knowledge about patient safety [AOR = 2.9, 95% CI: (1.9, 3.4)] were associated with better patient safety practices.

Conclusion

In the current study the practice of patient safety among health science students was low and less than half of the students had good knowledge and favorable attitudes toward patient safety. Patient safety practices were influenced by the length of the clinical attachment, the study year, and the knowledge of patient safety. This calls for patient safety courses to be included in training curricula of undergraduate health sciences students.

Comparison of Perceptions About Patient Safety Culture Between Physicians and Nurses in Public Hospitals in Vietnam

Introduction

Patient safety culture (PSC) is a vital component in ensuring high-quality and safe patient care. Assessment of physicians' and nurses' perceptions of existing hospital PSC is the first step to promoting PSC. This paper is aimed to assess physicians' and nurses' perceptions of PSC in 5 public general hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Methods

This cross-sectional study surveyed 410 physicians and 824 nurses utilizing the validated Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in an online format.

Results

The composite positive physician's perception of PSC varied from 47.8 to 89.6% with the lowest composite score of patient safety for "staffing" (47.8%) and the highest composite score for "teamwork within units" (89.6%). The composite positive responses for perception among nurses varied from 51.3 to 94.2% with the lowest composite score of patient safety for "staffing" (51.3%) and the highest composite score for "teamwork within units" (94.2%).

Conclusion

The mean scores for "supervisor/manager expectations"; "staffing", "management support for patient safety", "teamwork across units", "handoffs and transitions" among nurses were significantly higher than that among physicians (p<0.05). About two-thirds of physicians and nurses reported no event in the past 12 months (62.8 and 71.7%, respectively). The nurses reported significantly higher patient grades (every good and excellent) than physicians (75% vs 67.1%, p <0.001). Hospitals could develop and implement intervention programs to improve patient safety, including providing interventions on teamwork and communication, encouraging staff to notify incidents, and avoiding punitive responses.

Predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture: a cross-sectional comparative study

BACKGROUND

Developing a safety culture in hospitals improves patient safety-related initiatives. Limited recent knowledge about patient safety culture (PSC) exists in the healthcare context.

AIMS

This study assessed nurses' reporting on the predictors and outcomes of PSC and the differences between the patient safety grades and the number of events reported across the components of PSC.

METHODS

A cross-sectional comparative research design was conducted. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (https://www.strobe-statement.org/index.php?id=available-checklists) guided the study. The researcher recruited a convenience sample of 300 registered nurses using the hospital survey on patient safety culture, with a response rate of 75%.

RESULTS

Nurses reported PSC to be 'moderate'. Areas of strength in PSC were non-punitive responses to errors and teamwork within units. Areas that needed improvements were the supervisor's/manager's expectations and actions in promoting safety and communication openness. Some significant correlations were reported among PSC components. Significant differences in means were observed for patient safety grades in six out of the ten PSC components and one outcome item. Organisational learning/continuous improvement, hospital handoffs and transitions, years of experience in the current hospital, the supervisor's/manager's expectations and actions in promoting safety and gender predicted PSC. Of the outcomes, around half of the sample reported a 'very good' patient safety grade, and 'no events' or 'one to two events' only were reported, and nurses 'agreed' on the majority of items, which indicates a positive perception about the overall PSC in the hospitals. In addition, nurses 'most of the time' reported the events when they occurred. PSC components correlated significantly and moderately with PSC outcomes.

CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

PSC was moderate with an overall positive nurses' perceptions. PSC's strengths should be maintained, and areas of improvement should be prioritised and immediately tackled. Assessing PSC is the first step in improving hospitals' overall performance and quality of services, and improving patient safety practices is essential to improving PSC and clinical outcomes.

Patient Safety Culture in 2 Public Hospitals in Vietnam: A Mixed Method Study

BACKGROUND

Patient safety culture is an important measure in assessing the quality of care. There is a growing need to establish a patient safety culture in hospitals. This study explored the perception of health professionals on patient safety culture in 2 public hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam.

METHOD

A mixed-methods study with an online Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and qualitative data collection was conducted in Hanoi. The HSOPSC was validated in Vietnam before using it.

RESULTS

A total of 626 health professionals, including physicians and nurses, were involved in the survey, and 49 of them participated in in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The average positive response of patient safety culture composites was high at 85.2% and varied from 49.4% to 97.9%. The strongest areas were teamwork within units (91.3%) and organizational learning/continuous improvement (88.4%), and the areas that needed improvement were staffing (49.4%) and nonpunitive response to error (53.1%).

CONCLUSION

The centralized incident reporting, management with peer involvement on event reporting, and continuous quality improvement should be routinely embedded by hospital leaders down to unit managers and all staff.

Patient safety culture in Iranian teaching hospitals: baseline assessment, opportunities for improvement and benchmarking

Background

Patient safety culture is an essential factor in determining the ability of hospitals to treat and reduce patient risks. Healthcare professionals, especially nurses, play an important role in patient safety because they are responsible for direct and ongoing patient care. Few studies in Iran examine the patient safety culture in Iranian teaching hospitals, particularly from the perspective of nursing staff. This research assessed patient safety culture in teaching hospitals in Iran from the nurses’ point of view and compared the outcomes with similar regional and global studies. Furthermore, the study identified the factors influencing patient safety culture and its association with outcomes.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was accomplished in thirty-two teaching hospitals in five provinces of Iran. A total of 2295 nurses were chosen through convenience sampling. Collection data were done using the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HOPSC) from October 2018 and September 2019. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression analysis.

Results

The results demonstrated the overall percentage of positive response rate for the HOPSC tool (36.4%). The average percentage of positive responses among all dimensions ranged from 27.1% in “Staffing” to 53.8% in “Teamwork across Hospital Units”. Benchmarking analysis shows that Iranian hospitals are equal or better performance than the benchmark on several composites compared to regional and global findings. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the age, gender, total years of experience in nursing, work area or unit, work hours, and size of the hospital were significant predictors of the perceptions patient safety culture of nurses (p <  0.05).

Conclusions

This is one of few studies that examine nurses’ perceptions of patient safety culture in public hospitals in Iran. Although the results of the present study showed that the results of Iran were at or better than the many composites in Jordan, Turkey, KSA, and the Philippines. The findings confirmed that all 12 dimensions can be considered as areas requiring improvement, and these results demonstrated that there was a severe shortage in patient safety culture among the included hospitals.

Clinical incident reporting behaviors and associated factors among health professionals in Dessie comprehensive specialized hospital, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: a mixed method study

Background

Understanding the type and causes of errors are necessary for the prevention of occurrence or reoccurrence. Therefore addressing the behavior of health professionals on reporting clinical incidents is crucial to create spontaneous knowledge from mistakes and enhance patient safety.

Method

A mixed type institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March 1 - 30, 2020 in Dessie comprehensive specialized hospital among 319 and 18 participants for the quantitative and qualitative study, respectively. The professions and participants with their assigned proportions were selected using a simple random sampling technique. For quantitative and qualitative data, semi structured questionnaires and interviewer-guided questions were used to collect data, respectively. Finally, qualitative findings were used to supplement the quantitative result.

Result

The finding showed that the proportion of clinical incident reporting behavior among health professionals was 12.4%. Having training (AOR=3.6, 95% CI, 1.15-11.45), incident reporting help to minimize errors (AOR=2.8, 95% CI, 1.29-6.02), fear of legal penalty (AOR= 0.3, 95% CI, 0.13-0.82), and lack of feedback (AOR=0.3, 95% CI, 0.11-0.90) were identified as significant factors for clinical incident reporting behavior of the health professionals.

Conclusions

This study showed that the clinical incident reporting behavior of the health professionals was very low. Therefore health professionals should get training on clinical incident reporting and the hospital should have an incident reporting system and guideline.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07350-y.

Assessment of Patient Safety Culture in Public General Hospital in Capital City of Vietnam

Patient safety culture is a vital component in ensuring high quality and safe patient care. Assessment of staff perception on existing hospital patient safety culture (PSC) is the first step to promote PSC. This paper is aimed to assess the patient safety culture in 1 big public autonomous general hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. This cross-sectional study surveyed 638 healthcare professional utilizing the validated (Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture [HSOPSC]) in an online format. This study adhered to STROBE guidelines. The positive response rate was high, with a percentage of 74.2. The strongest areas are teamwork within units (91.3%) and organizational learning/continuous improvement (88.4%). The areas for improvement are staffing (49.4%) and non-punitive response to error (53.1%). Hospital administrators should strengthen the culture of patient safety by formulating strategies and implementing interventions with emphasis on adequate staffing and promoting blame-free working environment.

Patient Safety Culture and Associated Factors Among Health-Care Providers in the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Introduction

Patient safety is an issue of global concern; however, health-care organizations have lately observed to pay more attention to the importance of establishing a culture of safety. The study aimed to assess the level of patient safety culture and associated factors among health-care providers at the University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design supported by the qualitative approach was conducted from March 15 to May 15/2020. A stratified simple sampling technique was used to select 575 study participants. The standardized tool, which measures 12 safety culture dimensions, was used for data collection. Bivariate and multivariable linear regression analyses performed using SPSS version 23. The significance level was obtained at 95% CI and p-value <0.05. For the qualitative part, a semi-structured interview guide with probing was used. Data were analyzed thematically using open code software version 4.02.

Results

The overall level of positive patient safety culture was 45.3% (95% CI: 44.7, 45.9) with a response rate of 92.2%. Factor analysis indicated that female, masters, participation in patient safety program, adverse event report, hospital management encourage reporting event and resource were positively associated with the patient safety culture. Whereas divorced/widowed, midwives, anesthetist, medicine, pediatrics, emergency, outpatient, pharmacy, direct contact with patients, and hospital management blame when medical errors happened were negatively associated. The in-depth interview revealed that teamwork, health-care professionals’ attitude toward patient safety and patient involvement as important factors that influence patient safety culture.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The overall level of positive patient safety culture was low. All variables except age, training, working hour, and working experience were factors significantly associated with the patient safety culture. Health-care policy-makers and managers should consider patient safety culture a top priority, and also create a blame-free environment that promotes event reporting.

Nurses' perception of patient safety culture and its relationship with adverse events: a national questionnaire survey in Iran

Background

Patient safety culture is an important factor in determining hospitals’ ability to address and reduce the occurrence of adverse events (AEs). However, few studies have reported on the impact of nurses’ perceptions of patient safety culture on the occurrence of AEs. Our study aimed to assess the association between nurses’ perception of patient safety culture and their perceived proportion of adverse events.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 2295 nurses employed in thirty-two teaching hospitals in Iran. Nurses completed the Persian version of the hospital survey of patients’ safety culture between October 2018 and September 2019.

Results

Positive Response Rates of overall patient safety culture was 34.1% and dimensions of patient safety culture varied from 20.9 to 43.8%. Also, nurses estimated that the occurrence of six adverse events varied from 51.2–63.0% in the past year. The higher nurses’ perceptions of “Staffing”, “Hospital handoffs and transitions”, “Frequency of event reporting”, “Non-punitive response to error”, “Supervisor expectation and actions promoting safety”, “Communication openness”, “Organizational learning continuous improvement”, “Teamwork within units”, and “Hospital management support patient safety” were significantly related to lower the perceived occurrence at least two out of six AEs (OR = 0.69 to 1.46).

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrated that nurses’ perception regarding patient safety culture was low and the perceived occurrence of adverse events was high. The research has also shown that the higher level of nurses’ perception of patient safety culture was associated with lowered occurrence of AEs. Hence, managers could provide prerequisites to improve patient safety culture and reduce adverse events through different strategies, such as encouraging adverse events’ reporting and holding training courses for nurses. However, further research is needed to assess how interventions addressing patient safety culture might reduce the occurrence of adverse events.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-021-00571-w.

Assessment of Patient Safety Culture Among Doctors, Nurses, and Midwives in a Public Hospital in Afghanistan

INTRODUCTION

The first step to improve the safety of patients in hospitals is to evaluate safety culture. Therefore, the patient safety culture in doctors, nurses and midwives should be reviewed regularly. The aim of the study was to determine the current state of patient safety culture among physicians, nurses and midwives at the Estiqlal Hospital in Kabul to promote an effective safety culture.

METHODS

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from January to March 2020 among doctors, nurses, and midwives at the Esteqlal Specialized Hospital in Kabul. In that study, the data were collected through a survey of hospital. Among the 267 employees invited to participate, 267 (100%) completed the surveys. Descriptive statistics have been used to adjust frequency distribution tables and inferential statistics to identify differences in variable relationships. The independent sample T-test and one-way 'ANOVA ' were used to check variations between groups, and SPSS version 25 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS

The findings of this study have shown that organizational learning and non-punitive response to errors have had the highest and lowest scores. Eight out of 12 dimensions of patient safety culture scored lower. Four dimensions of patient safety culture scored the highest. Overall, patient safety culture dimensions were low and poor (44%). This means the patient safety culture at the hospital was poor.

CONCLUSION

The safety culture of the patients at the hospital was inappropriate, particularly in the eight dimensions of the patient safety culture, immediate intervention was necessary. The study emphasizes the creation of a desirable organizational climate, the need for staff involvement in various levels of decision-making, the creation of a culture of error reporting and recognizing the causing factors, and promoting a patient safety culture.

Patient safety culture and associated factors among health care professionals at public hospitals in Dessie town, north east Ethiopia, 2019

Introduction

Patient safety culture is defined as the attitudes, perceptions, and values that staffs share within an organization related to patient safety. The safety of health care is now a major global concern. It is likely that millions of people suffer disabling injuries or death directly related to medical care. Particularly in developing and transitional countries, patient harm is a global public health problem. The objective of the study is to assess patient safety culture and associated factors among health care professionals working in public hospitals in Dessie town, North East Ethiopia, 2019.

Methods

Facility based quantitative study was employed from March 15 –April 30, 2019 in public hospitals in Dessie town. Four hundred and twenty two health care professionals were recruited to complete a structured pretested self-administered questionnaire. The data was cleaned, coded and entered in to Epi Info-7 and exported to SPSS version 20. Data was further analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Variables with P value of less than 0.05 in multivariate analysis were declared as statistically significant at 95% CI.

Results

Of the 422 recruited a total of 411 participants completed the survey with a response rate of 97.4%. Close to half (184(44.8%)) of the participants indicated good patient safety culture. Good patient safety culture was positively associated with working in primary hospital (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.56, 4.21). On the other hand, good patient safety culture was negatively associated with health professional’s age between 25–34 year (AOR = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.08–0.74) and working in Pediatrics ward (AOR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.17–0.9) and in emergency ward (AOR = O.25, 95%CI = 0.09–0.67).

Conclusion

The overall level of patient safety culture was under 50%. Good patient safety culture had positive association with working in primary hospital and negative association with professionals’ age between 25–29 year, 30–34 year and working in pediatrics and emergency ward. Implementing actions that support all dimensions of safety culture should be promoted at all levels of hospitals.

Assessment of patient safety climate by nurses in Slovak Public and private hospitals

AIM

To examine variations in the safety climate reported by nurses in Slovak hospitals and to analyse the association between dimensions of the patient safety climate and demographic and organisational factors.

BACKGROUND

A deeper understanding of how safety climate varies across hospitals can be useful in determining areas with a potential for improvement. Staffing and non-punitive response to errors were identified in recent research syntheses as the weakest dimensions of safety climate that require strengthening.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 1,429 nurses working in public and private hospitals in Slovakia. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was used for data collection, and descriptive analysis was carried out to examine relationships between variables.

RESULTS

Nurses working in general private hospitals with a bed capacity of less than 500 beds were more positive about their hospital safety climate than other nurses working in differently organised hospitals. The lowest number of positive responses was scored in the domain of 'Non-Punitive Response to Error'. This result came from a blame-free error-reporting atmosphere.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses perceived a higher level of patient safety when they had experienced better sharing of information on event reporting and had better learning opportunities.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The results revealed strengths and weaknesses of the patient safety climate in the network of Slovak hospitals from the perspective of nurses working in these hospitals. This knowledge can enable nurse managers to instigate supportive strategies for just reporting, and learning from events, within an enhanced safety culture.

Evaluation of patient safety culture among community pharmacists in Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Objective

The study was aimed to explore patient safety culture of community pharmacists working in Dessie and Gondar towns, Northern Ethiopia.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted from 1^st to 31^st March 2018. In this cross-sectional survey, the Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSOPSC), developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was used to collect data. PSOPSC is a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed among staffs who work in community pharmacies of Dessie and Gondar towns. All staffs available on data collection period in the pharmacy were included. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 25 was used to enter and analyze the data.

Results

A total of 120 participants were approached and completed the questionnaire. Results from the study showed that high positive response rate was demonstrated in the domains of “Teamwork” (90.2%) followed by physical space and environment (83.1%). On the other hand, the result also identified that there is an enormous problem related to mistake communication (44.8%) and work pressure (45%). In addition, significant difference of percent positive responses were obtained across towns and staff working hours.

Conclusions

The patient safety culture of community pharmacists is appreciable especially with respect to their teamwork. Besides, urgent attention should be given to areas of weakness, mainly in the domain of “mistake communication” and “staffing and work pressure”.

Areas of Potential Improvement for Hospitals' Patient-Safety Culture in Western Ethiopia

Background

Patient-safety culture is an important component of health-care quality and currentlyan issue of high concern globally. In Ethiopia, little is known about patient-safety culture in hospitals. We assessed the patient-safety culture and associated factors among health-care workers in public hospitals of East Wollega Zone, western Ethiopia.

Methods

This institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 421 health-care workers selected using simple random sampling from March 4 to March 29, 2019. A standardized measuring 12 patient safety–culture components was used for data collection. Data were cleaned and entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analysis done using SPSS version 25 (IBM). Bivariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed. Significance was set at 95% CI and p<0.05, and unstandardized β-coefficients were used to measure extent of association.

Results

This study revealed that the level of patient-safety culture was 49.2% and patient safety culture–component scores ranged from 29.2% for nonpunitive responses to error to 77.9% for teamwork within a hospital unit. Age ≥45 years (β=13.642, CI: 5.324–21.959; p=0.001), 1–5 years’ experience at the current hospital (β=5.559, 95% CI 2.075–9.042; p=0.002), and working in general hospitals (β=11.988, 95% CI 7.233–16.743; p<0.001) and primary hospitals (β=6.408, 95% CI 2.192–10.624; p=0.003) were factors associated with better scores on patient-safety culture.

Conclusion

Overall scores for patient-safety culture were low. Improving the current state of patient safety in public hospitals would require tailored interventions to address low-scoring components, such as nonpunitive responses to error.

Cultura de la seguridad del paciente en seis centros quirúrgicos de Antioquia

Introducción: Colombia, como otros países promueve políticas de seguridad al paciente con el fin de evitar situaciones que afecten su bienestar y su salud, asimismo, reducir y, de ser posible, eliminar la ocurrencia de eventos adversos.  Objetivo: Caracterizar la cultura de seguridad del paciente referido por el personal de seis centros quirúrgicos de Antioquia. Materiales y métodos: Estudio multicéntrico transversal descriptivo. Se aplicó el instrumento Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture propuesto por la Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) a 514 trabajadores del área de la salud. Por recomendación de AHRQ, se recodificó la escala de Likert de la encuesta. Resultados: En una escala de cero a diez, el promedio del clima de seguridad en los servicios de cirugía es 8. El 62% de las respuestas sobre la percepción de la cultura de la seguridad fue positiva en aprendizaje organizacional/mejora continua en 81.70% de los trabajadores; en el trabajo en equipo en el servicio, 81.54%. Se encontraron oportunidades de mejora en dotación de personal (49.98%); respuesta no punitiva a errores (45.98%); y franqueza en comunicación (44.28%). Discusión: las dimensiones que son fortalezas y debilidades reportadas en la investigación son comparables con las reportadas en otros estudios y requiere atención del sistema de salud y de las direcciones de las instituciones. Conclusión: Se detectaron fortalezas y debilidades en la cultura de seguridad de los pacientes. En cuanto a las Fortalezas: el Aprendizaje organizacional/mejora continua y el Trabajo en equipo en la Unidad/Servicio; el resto son oportunidades de mejora. Como citar este artículo: Salazar Maya Ángela María, Restrepo Marín Diana Marcela. Cultura de la seguridad del paciente en seis centros quirúrgicos de Antioquia. Revista Cuidarte. 2020; 11(2): e1040. http://dx.doi.org/10.15649/cuidarte.1040

Assessment of patient safety culture among paramedical personnel at general and district hospitals, Fayoum Governorate, Egypt

Background

Healthcare is a high-risk industry that requires regular assessment of patient safety climate within healthcare organizations. This addresses the organizational cultural issues and explores the association between organizational climate and patient outcomes. This study aimed to assess patient safety culture among paramedical health employees at Fayoum general and district hospitals and to determine factors affecting their perception of patient safety.

Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the general hospital and four district hospitals in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt, among 479 paramedical healthcare workers. The standardized Hospital Patient Safety scale (HSOPSC) that composed of 12 safety culture dimensions was used.

Results

The mean total safety score varies according to the participant’s position and work area. The total patient safety score was 46.56%. No dimension reported score above 75%. The highest mean composite scores were for organizational learning and continuous improvement (65.36%) and teamwork within hospital units (63.09%). The lowest reported score was for communication openness (17.9%). More perception of safety dimensions was seen in females than males, participants in direct contact with patients, and those with work experience less than 10 years.

Conclusion and recommendations

Overall, the degree of patient safety is low at Fayoum public hospitals. No dimension scored above 75%, and 7 out of 12 dimensions scored less than 50%. Hence, continuous monitoring and updating of the ways of incident reporting is highly recommended. This may be done through setting up a web-based incident reporting system accessible for 24 h.

Pre- and post evaluations of the effects of the Connect, Ask, Respond and Empathise (CARE) protocol on nursing handover: A case study of a bilingual hospital in Hong Kong

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To evaluate (a) the perceived effects of the training provided to nurses under a standardised Connect, Ask, Respond and Empathise (CARE) protocol; (b) the ability to enhance the effectiveness of the ISBAR checklist; (c) any increase in nurses' spoken interactions and/or improved comprehension of the patient conditions upon the transfer of responsibility.

BACKGROUND

Nursing handover is a pivotal act of communication with effects on both patient safety and risk management. Previous studies of critical incidents have highlighted ineffective communication, including a lack of interaction and incomplete and unstructured handovers, as a major contributor to patient harm.

DESIGN

A pre- and post evaluation study involving a questionnaire survey before and after the 3-hours training.

METHODS

Forty-nine randomly selected bilingual nurses with no previous professional development experience in handover communication were trained according to the CARE protocol, and their perceptions of nursing handovers were assessed before and after training using questionnaire. The STROBE checklist is used (See File S1).

RESULTS

Training of the CARE protocol improved key areas of the handover process. All participating nurses exhibited significant improvements in their perceptions of effective handover from before to after training. Particularly, improvements were observed in the interactive frequency and quality and completeness of the presented patient information per handover.

CONCLUSIONS

The nurses reported a deeper understanding of their perceptions of handover after a patient-centred intervention, a better quality of interactions (e.g., querying and checking by incoming nurses), a greater focus when managing handovers and a more complete and comprehensive transfer of information between nurses.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

CARE protocol-based training yielded significant improvements in nursing handover practice.