Patient Safety Culture: Perception of Health Professionals in Primary Care Settings

Introduction: A positive safety culture is considered a pillar of safety in health organizations and the first crucial step for quality health services. In this context, the aim of this study was to set a reference evaluation for the patient safety culture in the primary health sector in Greece, based on health professionals’ perceptions. Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey with a 62% response rate (n = 459), conducted in primary care settings in Greece (February to May 2020). We utilized the “Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture” survey tool from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The study participants were health professionals who interacted with patients from 12 primary care settings in Greece. Results: The most highly ranked domains were: “Teamwork” (82%), “Patient Care Tracking/Follow-up” (80% of positive scores), and “Organizational Learning” (80%); meanwhile, the lowest-ranked ones were: “Leadership Support for Patient Safety” (62%) and “Work Pressure and Pace” (46%). The other domains, such as “Overall Perceptions of Patient Safety and Quality” (77%), “Staff Training“ (70%), “Communication about Error” (70%), “Office Processes and Standardization” (67%), and “Communication Openness” (64%), ranked somewhere in between. Conclusions: A positive safety culture was identified in primary care settings in Greece, although weak areas concerning the safety culture should be addressed in order to improve patient safety.

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Patient safety culture in the perception of health professionals: A mixed methods research study

Revista Gaúcha de Enfermagem ◽

10.1590/1983-1447.2021.20200418 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Cassiana Gil Prates ◽

Rita Catalina Aquino Caregnato ◽

Ana Maria Müller de Magalhães ◽

Daiane Dal Pai ◽

Janete de Souza Urbanetto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Mixed Methods ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Mixed Methods Research ◽

Work Organization ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Integrated Analysis ◽

Explanatory Mixed Methods ◽

Perception Of Health

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the patient safety culture perceived by health professionals working in a hospital and to understand the elements influencing it. Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed methods study, conducted in 2017 in two interrelated stages in a hospital. The quantitative stage was carried out by applying the questionnaire to 618 professionals and the qualitative stage, with ten, using the focus group technique. The analysis was descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and of content for the qualitative data. Subsequently, the data were submitted to integrated analysis. Results: Of the 12 dimensions, seven were considered weak, the most critical being “non-punitive response to error” with 28.5% of positive answers. Bureaucratic, poorly designed and uncoordinated processes, regional decisions, communication failures, hierarchy, overload, punishment and judicialization were related to the perception. Conclusions: The patient safety culture was considered weak, and elements related to work organization, people management and legal risk influenced this negative perception.

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Assessing patient safety culture in New Zealand primary care: a pilot study using a modified Manchester Patient Safety Framework in Dunedin general practices

Journal of Primary Health Care ◽

10.1071/hc11035 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 35 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Katharine Wallis ◽

Susan Dovey

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Patient Safety ◽

New Zealand ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Cultural Transformation ◽

Safety Issues ◽

Primary Care Settings ◽

Consensus Score ◽

General Practices

INTRODUCTION: Patient safety is a major concern, both in hospitals and in primary care settings. The current focus internationally is on the prospect of improving patient safety through cultural transformation. There are no tools designed to assess and strengthen safety culture in New Zealand (NZ) general practices, but a United Kingdom (UK) group have developed a toolthe Manchester Patient Safety Framework (MaPSaF)to assess safety culture in UK Primary Care Trusts. We aimed to modify the MaPSaF and test its acceptability and utility in the NZ primary care setting. METHODS: We modified the MaPSaF to suit the NZ context and then used it in 12 Dunedin general practices at baseline and at three months. Participants were all practice personnel present in the practice on the day. Participants rated their practice individually on each of the nine MaPSaF dimensions of safety culture, then discussed the dimensions and their scores and chose a practice-wide consensus score for each dimension in turn. These discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed to determine acceptability and utility of the modified framework in NZ practices. FINDINGS: The framework process took about one hour. Most participants found the process acceptable and useful. The framework directed team discussion about patient safety issues and facilitated communication and prompted some practices to make changes. Some participants from smaller practices deemed the systems advocated in the framework superfluous. CONCLUSION: The framework can be adapted and used in NZ practices to stimulate learning about safety culture and to facilitate team communication. KEYWORDS: Family practice; patient safety; primary care; safety culture

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Psychometric Properties of the Greek Version of the Medical Office on Patient Safety Culture in Primary Care Settings

Medicines ◽

10.3390/medicines8080042 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (8) ◽

pp. 42

Author(s):

Ioannis Antonakos ◽

Kyriakos Souliotis ◽

Theodora Psaltopoulou ◽

Yannis Tountas ◽

Athanasios Papaefstathiou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Factor Analysis ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Construct Validity ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Primary Health Care System ◽

Efficient Operation ◽

Primary Care Settings ◽

Medical Office

Background: Safety culture is considered one of the most crucial premises for further development of patient care in healthcare. During the eight-year economic crisis (2010–2018), Greece made significant reforms in the way the primary health care system operates, aiming at the more efficient operation of the system without degrading issues of safety and quality of the provided health services. In this context, this study aims to validate a specialized tool—the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (MOSPSC)—developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to evaluate primary care settings in terms of safety culture and quality. Methods: Factor analysis determined the correlation of the factor structure in Greek data with the original questionnaire. The relation of the factor analysis with the Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was also determined, including the construct validity. Results: Eight composites with 34 items were extracted by exploratory factor analysis, with acceptable Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and good construct validity. Consequently, the composites jointly explained 62% of the variance in the responses. Five items were removed from the original version of the questionnaire. As a result, three out of the eight composites were a mixture of items from different compounds of the original tool. The composition of the five factors was similar to that in the original questionnaire. Conclusions: The MOSPSC tool in Greek primary healthcare settings can be used to assess patient safety culture in facilities across the country. From the study, the patient safety culture in Greece was positive, although few composites showed a negative correlation and needed improvement.

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Patient safety culture-perception of health care workers in a tertiary care hospital

International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine ◽

10.3233/jrs-2012-0575 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 191-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sumathi Muralidhar ◽

Akhil Taneja ◽

V. Ramesh

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Health Care Workers ◽

Tertiary Care Hospital ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Care Hospital ◽

Care Workers ◽

Perception Of Health

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Developing a Primary Care Patient Safety Culture

Dental Abstracts ◽

10.1016/j.denabs.2021.10.029 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 66 (6) ◽

pp. 403-405

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Primary Care Patient ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Care Patient

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Assessment of patient safety culture in primary care setting, Al-Mukala, Yemen

BMC Family Practice ◽

10.1186/s12875-015-0355-1 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Hana H. Webair ◽

Salwa S. Al-assani ◽

Reema H. Al-haddad ◽

Wafa H. Al-Shaeeb ◽

Manal A. Bin Selm ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Patient Safety ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Care Setting ◽

Primary Care Setting ◽

Patient Safety Culture

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Development of the Austrian version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckz185.619 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽

Author(s):

ŠD Draganović ◽

G O Offermanns

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Factor Structure ◽

Safety Culture ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Online Survey ◽

Patient Safety Culture ◽

Public Hospitals ◽

Added Value ◽

Fit Indices ◽

New Instrument

Abstract Background Patient safety culture in hospitals (PSC), as well as its measurement and development, have received plenty of attention in Europe in recent years. Several instruments have been developed for its measurement in European countries. As Austria does not have empirically reviewed questionnaires to measure PSC jet, the research question of this study was: Is the globally admitted American questionnaire “Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC)” (Sorra & Nieva, 2004) suitable for the healthcare system in Austria? Methods The HSOPSC contains 42 questions, which constituted twelve factors altogether. The pre-test was done with 101 health professionals. The online survey was conducted in ten public hospitals in 2017. Overall 1525 health professionals participated, which corresponded to a response rate of 23%. A new instrument, namely “Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in Austria (HSPSC-AUT)”, was developed using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and the Confirmatory Analysis (CFA). Results The factor structure of HSOPSC was not identical to the factor structure of HSPSC-AUT, developed in our study. The study showcased a new tool, HSPSC-AUT, with 30 items altogether, consisting of seven departmental factors, two hospital factors and one outcome factor. This new tool (HSPSC-AUT) showed pleasant results on the model, indicator, and construct level. The results of CFA for HSPSC-AUT (χ2 [360] = 1408.245, p = 0.0001) showed a better model compared to HSOPSC. The absolute and relative fit-indices showed excellent model adjustment (RMSEA = 0.049, SRMR = 0.041, GFI = 0.927, CFI = 0.941, TLI = 0.929). Conclusions The study presents a new instrument, HSPSC-AUT, for the measurement of PSC. According to the results, HSPSC-AUT (10-factor structure) has a better model fit than the original HSOPSC. This was confirmed by chi-square test, absolute and relative fit-indices, informational criteria, reliability, and construct validity. Key messages The development of an instrument for measuring safety culture is the first step leading to a better PSC. For this reason, HSPSC-AUT is recommended as an instrument to measure the PSC in Austria. Finally, it can be said that the development of a new questionnaire as well as the related measurements of validity and reliability have added value to science and practice.

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