Patient safety culture in Austria and recommendations of evidence-based instruments for improving patient safety

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the patient safety culture in Austria. We identified factors that contributed to a higher degree of patient safety and subsequently developed evidence-based suggestions on how to improve patient safety culture in hospitals. Moreover, we examined differences in the perception of patient safety culture among different professional groups. This study used a cross-sectional design in ten Austrian hospitals (N = 1,525). We analyzed the correlation between ten patient safety culture factors, three background characteristics (descriptive variables), and three outcome variables (patient safety grade, number of adverse events reported, and influence on patient safety). We also conducted an analysis of variance to determine the differences in patient safety culture factors among the various professional groups in hospitals. The findings revealed that all ten factors have considerable potential for improvement. The most highly rated patient safety culture factors were communication openness and supervisor/manager’s expectations and actions promoting safety; whereas, the lowest rated factor was non-punitive response to error. A comparison of the various professional groups showed significant differences in the perception of patient safety culture between nurses, doctors, and other groups. Patient safety culture in Austria seems to have considerable potential for improvement, and patient safety culture factors significantly contribute to patient safety. We determined evidence-based practices as recommendations for improving each of the patient safety factors.

Clima de segurança nos ambientes de cuidado à saúde: revisão de escopo

“…(4,8,10) O hospital é o ambiente de cuidados com mais publicações. Isso se justifica dado à sua complexidade e diferentes perfis organizacionais (5,8,11,(13)(14)(15)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) , reforçando a interferência da cultura de segurança em locais onde há maior probabilidade de riscos e, consequentemente, danos à saúde. Observa-se também a aplicação de estudos com a temática proposta em setores específicos como unidade de transplante de medula óssea, psiquiatria, centro obstétrico.…”

Development and validation of a national clinical pharmacy competency framework for hospital pharmacists: a multi-method study

“…As a result, traditional hierarchical healthcare structures are very ingrained and scope for a role expansion of hospital pharmacists is curtailed. A recent cross-sectional study investigating the patient safety culture in ten Austrian hospitals, identi ed signi cant differences in the perception of patient safety among the 1525 participants from different professional healthcare groups [30]. While it found considerable room for improvement, pharmacy staff were not included in this study, which is symptomatic of the traditional healthcare structures, where pharmacists are strongly associated with more traditional roles such as logistics, procurement and production and less so with medication and patient safety [31].…”