Comprehensive interventions of safety culture to improve patient safety: A longitudinal follow-up in northeast China
Abstract Background: Safety culture in hospitals can affect patient disease processes and health status. However, comprehensive measures to improve patient safety and effective methods to precisely assess the outcomes are limited in China. Methods: A cohort study was carried out in a tertiary hospital in China. Medical caregivers received comprehensive interventions such as a study on emergency plans and professional skills training to improve safety culture at the beginning of January 2017. A total of 553 caregivers in March, 299 caregivers in June and 284 caregivers in December in the same year participated in the three evaluation surveys. The safety attitude questionnaire (SAQ), the dimension frequency and number of events reported in the hospital survey of patient safety culture (HSOPSC) and a questionnaire on barriers to reporting adverse events were used to examine the safety culture changes before, during and at the end of intervention implementation. Results: The scores for dimension teamwork climate, job satisfaction and perception of management in the SAQ were significantly increased (p < 0.05). The scores for the 17 items in the barriers to reporting adverse events questionnaire were significantly increased (p < 0.05). No significant changes were observed in the scores for the dimension frequency and number of events reported in the HSOPSC after the interventions. Conclusion: Our findings showed that the interventions improved safety attitudes, and the barriers to reporting adverse events decreased, suggesting that the comprehensive interventions used were helpful for improving the safety culture.