BackgroundConducting patient safety culture assessments can provide hospitals with information on how structures and processes within their system can impact patient outcomes. This study used the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) to conduct an assessment of patient safety culture in public hospitals in Kuwait and benchmark against regional and international studies that utilized the same tool. This objective of this study is to examine the association between the predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture.MethodsThis cross sectional study adopted a customized version of HSOPSC developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The survey targeted selected public hospital staff with at least one year of experience. Data was analyzed using SPSS 24 at a significance level of 0.05. Univariate analysis was utilized to obtain an overview of respondent demographics. The association between patient safety grade and the number of events reported and the remaining patient safety culture composites was analyzed using ANOVA f-test. Four regression models were constructed, two adopted Generalized Estimating Equations and the others were linear models. Results were benchmarked against similar initiatives in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and USA.ResultsA total of 12,092 employees from 16 public hospitals in Kuwait completed the survey. The overall response rate was 60.5% (20,003 distributed surveys). Areas of strength were Teamwork within Units, Organizational Learning—Continuous Improvement, Management Support for Patient Safety, Supervisor/Manager Expectations & Actions Promoting Patient Safety, and Feedback and Communication about Error. Regression findings highlighted significant association between patient safety outcomes and composites. Benchmarking analysis revealed that Kuwaiti hospitals are performing at or better than benchmark on several composites compared to regional and international findings.ConclusionThis is the first major study addressing patient safety culture in public hospitals in Kuwait. Despite having some areas for improvement, public hospitals in Kuwait were found to have multiple areas of strength. Improving patient safety culture is critical if hospitals want to improve quality and safety of medical services. Study findings can guide and inform country level strategies to further improve the systems governing patient safety practices.

Use of nonprescription drugs is a serious problem that has increased over the past few years. Long-term or chronic use of nonprescription medicine was the most common form of inappropriate use of nonprescription medications and lack of knowledge on the part of patients/customers about the active ingredient in a branded product was the most common factor contributing to its inappropriate use. Pharmacists should receive continuous professional education to increase their knowledge on and improve their practice of prescribing nonprescription medication; further, drug companies should be precise when disclosing information on OTC drug labels as the majority of pharmacists consult the drug label as a source of information about OTC.

Overall psychological empowerment achieved a higher mean score percentage compared with overall structural empowerment. Changing workplace structures is within the mandate of nurses' managers in their roles as advocates for and facilitators of high-quality care. The most significant opportunity for improvement is in the area of formal power, including flexibility, adaptability, creativity associated with discretionary decision-making, visibility, and centrality to organizational purpose and goals.