Introduction Adverse events pose a serious threat to quality patient care. Promoting a culture of safety is essential for reducing adverse events. This study aims to assess healthcare providers’ perceptions of patient safety culture in three selected hospitals in the Upper East region of Ghana. Methods The English version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire was administered to 406 clinical staff. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 23, was used to analyze the data. The results were presented using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Analysis and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results It was found that two out of twelve patient safety culture dimensions recorded high positive response rates (≥ 70%). These include teamwork within units (81.5%) and organizational learning (73.1%). Three patient safety culture dimensions (i.e. staffing, non-punitive response to error and frequency of events reported) recorded low positive response rates (≤ 50%). The overall perception of patient safety correlated significantly with all patient safety culture dimensions, except staffing. There was no statistically significant difference in the overall perception of patient safety among the three hospitals. Conclusion Generally, healthcare providers in this study perceived patient safety culture in their units as quite good. Some of the respondents perceived punitive response to errors. Going forward, healthcare policy-makers and managers should make patient safety culture a top priority. The managers should consider creating a ‘blame-free’ environment to promote adverse event reporting in the hospitals.

Objective To find out the determinants of patient safety culture among healthcare providers in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Design This was a cross-sectional survey of three hospitals. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was adapted for data collection. Setting The setting was three selected hospitals (mission, public, and private) from the Upper East Region of Ghana. Participants A total of 393 healthcare providers were invited to participate, but 384 (98%) honored the invitation. Main outcome measure: The main outcome measure (dependent variable) was overall perception of patient safety culture. Results It was found that only 7% of the respondents thought that overall patient safety culture was excellent, while close to 14% of the respondents thought that overall patient safety culture was poor. The significant predictors of overall patient safety culture were teamwork across units (β = 126, p = .04), organizational learning (β = .112, p = .05), and management support for patient safety (β = .172, p = .00). Conclusions Generally, patient safety culture in the selected hospitals was below expectation. In the quest to promote a culture of safety, healthcare managers of the hospitals must invest resources in promoting teamwork, organizational learning, and management support among other factors.