Patient safety in organizational culture as perceived by leaderships of hospital institutions with different types of administration

Baseline assessment of patient safety culture in primary care centres in Kuwait: a national cross-sectional study

Background

Assessments of the culture surrounding patient safety can inform healthcare settings on how their structures and processes impact patient outcomes. This study investigated patient safety culture in Primary Health Care Centres in Kuwait, and benchmarked the findings against regional and international results. This study also examined the association between predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture in these settings.

Methods

This cross-sectional quantitative study used the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture. The study was targeted at staff of all the Primary Health Care Centres in Kuwait with at least one year of experience. Data were analysed using SPSS 23 at a significance level of ≤ .05. Univariate (means, standard deviations, frequencies, percentages) and bivariate (chi-squared tests, student t-tests, ANOVA F-tests, Kruskal–Wallis tests, Spearman’s correlation) analyses provided an overview of participant socio-demographics and the association between patient safety culture composites and outcomes. We undertook a multivariate regression analysis to predict the determinants of patient safety culture. Results were benchmarked against similar local (Kuwait, 2014), regional (Yemen, 2015) and international (US, 2018) studies.

Results

The responses of 6602 employees from 94 centres were included in the study, with an overall response rate of 78.7%. The survey revealed Teamwork (87.8% positive ratings) and Organisational Learning (78.8%) as perceived areas of strength. Communication about Error (57.7%), Overall Perceptions of Patient Safety and Quality (57.4%), Communication Openness (54.4%), Owner/Managing Partner/Leadership Support for Patient Safety (53.8%) and Work Pressure and Pace (28.4%) were identified as areas requiring improvement. Benchmarking analysis revealed that Kuwait centres are performing at benchmark levels or better on four and six composites when compared to international and regional findings, respectively. Regression modelling highlighted significant predictions regarding patient safety outcomes and composites.

Conclusions

This is the first major study addressing the culture of patient safety in public Primary Health Care Centres regionally. Improving patient safety culture is critical for these centres to improve the quality and safety of the healthcare services they provide. The findings of this study can guide country-level strategies to develop the systems that govern patient safety practices.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07199-1.

Patient safety culture among nursing professionals in the intensive care environment

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the patient safety culture among intensive care nursing professionals.

METHOD

This is a cross-sectional study carried out in Intensive Care Units of a public hospital. Data collection was carried out from September to October 2017 with nursing professionals, using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire. Cronbach's Alpha, Pearson's Chi-Square or Fischer's Exact tests (5% significance level) were performed.

RESULTS

The final sample consisted of a total of 163 nursing professionals. No strong areas were observed for patient safety. The dimensions "teamwork in the unit", "expectations and actions of the supervisor/manager for the promotion of patient safety" and "organizational learning and continuous improvement" had the highest rates of positive responses, whereas the dimensions "opening for communication" and "feedback and communication about the error" had the lowest percentages. The general degree of patient safety was considered very good 72 (47%) and underreporting of the events was observed, most of them were carried out by nurses.

CONCLUSION

No dimension assessed was considered to be a strong area. However, most were shown to be potential areas for patient safety culture.

Patient safety culture in home care service

OBJECTIVE

Verify perceptions of the health team about patient safety culture in home care in a large city in Brazilian Midwest region.

METHOD

A survey study involving Safety Attitudes Questionnaire and professional profile inventory. Results: From the 37 professionals, most were female (n = 32, 86.5%), lived with their spouse (n = 25, 67.6%), worked in a statutory work regime (n = 29; 78.4%) and have only one job (n = 23; 62.2%). A higher median score for job satisfaction (80.0) and a lower score for management perception (31.8) were found. There was a negative correlation between weekly workload and teamwork (p = 0.02). Safety climate was significantly higher among consolidated (Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho - CLT) professionals in the safety climate (p = 0.001) and overall (p = 0.005) domains. Physicians had a higher perception of the safety climate domain when compared to professionals in other categories (p = 0.005). Age was positively associated to the climate in the safety (p = 0.002), working conditions (p = 0.03) and overall (p = 0.04) domains.

CONCLUSION

Teamwork and job satisfaction were scored as positive and management actions were considered the main weakness of the safety culture.

The impact of patient safety culture and the leader coaching behaviour of nurses on the intention to report errors: a cross-sectional survey

Background

There is growing interest in examining the factors affecting the reporting of errors by nurses. However, little research has been conducted into the effects of perceived patient safety culture and leader coaching of nurses on the intention to report errors.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 256 nurses in the emergency departments of 18 public and private hospitals in Tabriz, northwest Iran. Participants completed the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC), Coaching Behavior Scale and Intention to Report Errors’ questionnaires and the data was analyzed using multiple linear regression analysis.

Results

Overall, 43% of nurses had an intention to report errors; 50% of respondents reported that their nursing managers demonstrated high levels of coaching. With regard to patient safety culture, areas of strength and weakness were “teamwork within units” (PRR = 66.8%) and “non-punitive response errors” (PRR = 19.7%). Regression analysis findings highlighted a significant association between an intention to report errors and patient safety culture (B = 0.2, CI 95%: 0.1 to 0.3, P < 0.05), leader coaching behavior (B = 0.2, CI 95%: 0.1 to 0.3, P < 0.01) and nurses’ educational status (B = 0.8, 95% CI: − 0.1 to 1.6, P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Further research is needed to assess how interventions addressing patient safety culture and leader coaching behaviours might increase the intention to report errors.

Perception of Patient Safety Culture in the Framework of the Psychosocial Care Network in Western Amazon: A Cross-Sectional Study

The culture of patient safety should be considered a guiding principle for different areas of health. This research presents the results of an analysis on Patient Safety Culture (PSC), according to the perception of health professionals who work in the Psychosocial Care Network, through a descriptive observational cross-sectional study, using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in a municipality in the Western Amazon of Brazil. Sixty-nine (69) professionals expressed that the best dimensions evaluated were: “expectations and actions to promote the safety of supervisors and managers” (75%) and “support from hospital management to patient safety” (64%). The worst evaluations were: “non-punitive responses to errors” (27%) and “general perceptions about patient safety” (35%), demonstrating that there still is a culture of fear of causing harm and the need for educational actions on patient safety. In general, all professionals have close contact with patients, regardless of the length on duty; however, the weekly workload and turnover in this sector is leading to a greater chance of errors. The analysis of the internal reliability of the dimensions ranged from 0.12 to 0.89. Only one-third of the respondents scored PSC as “Good” in the studied institutions and 63 out 69 professionals did not report any adverse events in the last 12 months. There are weaknesses in the observed perception of PSC and the obtained results show opportunities and challenges for improvements in the study system.

EFFECT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSITION OF HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT ON THE SAFETY CULTURE IN SURGICAL UNITS

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the safety culture in surgical units of a teaching hospital in different periods of hospital management. Method: this is a descriptive and analytical study developed with health professionals working at a surgical center and at five surgical inpatient units in two different periods of hospital management in southern Brazil. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was answered by 73 professionals in period I (2014/2015) and by 158 professionals in period II (2017). The analysis was based on descriptive statistics and on inferential analysis and reliability analysis using Cronbach's alpha coefficient; the dimensions were considered strong when the percentage of positive answers was ≥75%. Results: the administrative transition had a positive influence on the “Staffing” and “Handoffs and transitions” dimensions and a negative influence on “Teamwork within units” (p<0.001), with no difference in the remaining nine dimensions. In both periods, no dimension was considered strong; there were no changes with regard to the notification of adverse events and to the overall safety assessment; and the overall reliability of the instrument was satisfactory (0.89). Conclusion: the administrative transition of hospital management had little impact on the dimensions of the organizational safety culture, and there are still challenges in the progressive development of this predictor of patient safety.