ObjectiveTo compare the anthropometric measurements of newborns in a tertiary care hospital in Sri Lanka, with WHO standards.MethodsBirth weight, length and occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) of 400 consecutive, term newborns of healthy mothers were measured in a tertiary care hospital.Results400 subjects were approached and seven were excluded, concluding the study population to 184 boys and 209 females. Medians of birth weight, length and OFC were 3000 g, 49.95 cm and 34.15 cm of males and IQRs were 555.00, 2.70 and 1.70, respectively. For females, the medians of birth weight, length and OFC were 2900 g, 48.9 cm and 34.00 cm with IQRs of 450.00, 2.70 and 1.50, respectively. The two-tailed t-test revealed that median weights of males (t=9.632) and females (t=12.04) and OFC of males (t=3.98) were significantly lower than the WHO medians. There was a significant association of birth weight, with mother’s prepregnancy weight, in males (β coefficient=12.629 with 95% CI 6.275 to 18.982) and females (β coefficient=5.880, 95% CI 1.434 to 10.325). Significant associations of length (β coefficient=0.046, 95% CI 0.012 to 0.080) and OFC (β coefficient=0.033, 95% CI 0.014 to 0.053) with mother’s prepregnancy weight in males and length (β coefficient=0.084, 95% CI 0.022 to 0.145) and weight (β coefficient=10.780, 95% CI 0.93 to 20.629) with maternal age in females were found. Furthermore, birth weight in males was significantly associated with maternal height (β coefficient=10.899, 95% CI 0.552 to 21.247). Education level, ethnicity and parity showed no significant associations with above parameters.ConclusionThe median weights of both sexes and OFC in males were significantly lower than the WHO standards. Island-wide studies are indicated to evaluate the appropriateness of applying WHO standards to Sri Lankan newborns.

Background: Patient safety is a major concern for all health care providers worldwide. For creating patient safety culture the attitudes, values and beliefs of the members of the health care institutions towards patient safety should be improved. The study is expected to assess the culture of patient safety at Teaching Hospital Mahamodara -Galle (THM) and, Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire was used as the study instrument. The responsibility of creating a culture of safety belongs to all employees in a hospital; however, It will be successful only the involvement of senior management. In order to understand where to focus efforts in building this environment, hospital senior management must understand the opinions and beliefs of the employees regarding the safety culture of their hospital, before initiating a health and safety program. Methodology: The study design was a hospital based descriptive cross-sectional, using HSOPSC questionnaire. It was expected to measure the 12 dimensions of the patient safety culture of THM. The data collecting instrument which was a self-administered questionnaire, distributed among heath care staff including medical consultants, nurses, midwives, and para-medical staff. A total of 279 questionnaires were returned out of 416 (response rate 67%). Data were summarized as percentages, means and standard deviations. This study used HSOPSC data entry and analyzing tool for the purpose of statistical analysis. Results:In average 56% responded positively for the 12 patient safety culture dimensions of the HSOPSC survey. It was lower than the findings of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (65%), in 2018. "Teamwork within unit" scored the highest positive response rate that was similar to the US findings. The lowest percentage of positive responses were obtained by the dimension "Staffing". Forty seven percent respondents graded overall patient safety as 'excellent' or 'very good' while 48% graded it as 'acceptable'. Seventy eight percent of respondents had not reported any adverse event during last 12 months. Conclusions:The HSOPSC tool is a practical avenue to understand the health and safety culture in THM when initiating health and safety programs in order to understand the critical areas that should be focused. The results show that, in general, hospital staff of THM feels positively towards patient safety culture within the hospital. In addition, THM should enhance the education and should move towards a blame-free culture to improve the adverse event reporting. The showed discrepancies between US data and THM data suggest that cultural uniqueness is an important factor to give much better attention when applying safety culture tools to gather data in different cultural settings.