Patient safety culture in a large teaching hospital in Riyadh: baseline assessment, comparative analysis and opportunities for improvement

Abstract

BackgroundIn light of the immense attention given to patient safety, this paper details the findings of a baseline assessment of the patient safety culture in a large hospital in Riyadh and compares results with regional and international studies that utilized the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. This study also aims to explore the association between patient safety culture predictors and outcomes, considering respondent characteristics and facility size.MethodsThis cross sectional study adopted a customized version of the HSOPSC and targeted hospital staff fitting sampling criteria (physicians, nurses, clinical and non-clinical staff, pharmacy and laboratory staff, dietary and radiology staff, supervisors, and hospital managers).Results3000 questionnaires were sent and 2572 were returned (response rate of 85.7%). Areas of strength were Organizational Learning and Continuous Improvement and Teamwork within units whereas areas requiring improvement were hospital non-punitive response to error, staffing, and Communication Openness. The comparative analysis noted several areas requiring improvement when results on survey composites were compared with results from Lebanon, and the United States. Regression analysis showed associations between higher patient safety aggregate score and greater age (46 years and above), longer work experience, having a Baccalaureate degree, and being a physician or other health professional.ConclusionsPatient safety practices are crucial toward improving overall performance and quality of services in healthcare organizations. Much can be done in the sampled organizations and in the context of KSA in general to improve areas of weakness and further enhance areas of strength.

Patient Safety Culture and Factors that Impact That Culture in Tehran Hospitals in 2013

“…Like previous studies, all patient safety culture elements showed positive correlations with each other with one exception: there was no relationship between "frequency of events" and "management support," "teamwork within units," "teamwork across," "staffing, handoffs transitions" and "non-punitive responses" (29)(30)(31). similar to previous studies, "staffing" scored the lowest among all the patient safety culture elements (28) and "teamwork within units" (32,33) scored the highest in this study. Patient safety cultures within hospitals still require development.…”

Perception of Patient Safety Among Nurses at Teaching Hospital

“…It reflects a fact that there is a significant lack in staffing and resource adequacy, poor nurse leadership, nurse physician relationship, additional physician related items, inadequate nursing foundation for quality of care and nurse participation in hospital affairs. These findings come in agreement with Alahmadi; El-Jardali et al, who reported that shortage of nursing staff leads to an increase in workload, and this pressure is considered a major cause of errors [25,26]. Furthermore, the nursing environment which include arrangement of nursing units, technological equipment, communication, knowledge transfer among staff, inadequate policies, fatigue, stress and workload are significant factors affecting patient safety and the quality of care [19,27,16,28].…”

Assessment of Patient Safety Culture among Health Care Workers in Beni-Suef University Hospital, Egypt

“…30 A finding that might reflect the defective training and negligence of Beni-Suef HCWs of the importance of patient safety event reporting. As regard the correlation between frequency of events reporting and the 10 composites of patient safety, 9 dimensions showed positive correlation with frequency of events reporting strongest of which was observed for communication openness (r=0.362) while teamwork within hospital units showed the weakest correlation (r=0.185) ( 31 and teamwork across hospital units 26 , while the weakest correlation was for on supervisor manager expectations to promote patient safety (Pearson r = 0.081). 31 In addition, there was positive correlation between the dimension overall perception of safety and 9 dimensions of patient safety in the current study, strongest of which was for handoffs & transitions (r=0.531) while the weakest was that for management support for patient safety (r=0.142) ( Table 4).…”

“…As regard the correlation between frequency of events reporting and the 10 composites of patient safety, 9 dimensions showed positive correlation with frequency of events reporting strongest of which was observed for communication openness (r=0.362) while teamwork within hospital units showed the weakest correlation (r=0.185) ( 31 and teamwork across hospital units 26 , while the weakest correlation was for on supervisor manager expectations to promote patient safety (Pearson r = 0.081). 31 In addition, there was positive correlation between the dimension overall perception of safety and 9 dimensions of patient safety in the current study, strongest of which was for handoffs & transitions (r=0.531) while the weakest was that for management support for patient safety (r=0.142) ( Table 4). Findings are in agreement with Higher scores on hospital handoffs and transitions 26 and not in agreement with the reported strongest correlation for hospital management support for patient safety (Pearson r = 0.352) and weakest for non-punitive response to error (Pearson r = 0.176).…”