Patient safety culture in Slovenian out-of-hours primary care clinics

Abstract

IntroductionPatient safety culture is a concept which describes how leader and staff interaction, attitudes, routines and practices protect patients from adverse events in healthcare. We aimed to investigate patient safety culture in Slovenian out-of-hours health care (OOHC) clinics, and determine the possible factors that might be associated with it.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study, which took place in Slovenian OOHC, as part of the international study entitled Patient Safety Culture in European Out-of-Hours Services (SAFE-EUR-OOH). All the OOHC clinics in Slovenia (N=60) were invited to participate, and 37 agreed to do so; 438 employees from these clinics were invited to participate. We used the Slovenian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire – an ambulatory version (SAQAV) to measure the climate of safety.ResultsOut of 438 invited participants, 250 answered the questionnaire (57.1% response rate). The mean overall score ± standard deviation of the SAQ was 56.6±16.0 points, of Perceptions of Management 53.6±19.6 points, of Job Satisfaction 48.5±18.3 points, of Safety Climate 59.1±22.1 points, of Teamwork Climate 72.7±16.6, and of Communication 51.5±23.4 points. Employees working in the Ravne na Koroškem region, employees with variable work shifts, and those with full-time jobs scored significantly higher on the SAQ-AV.ConclusionThe safety culture in Slovenian OOHC clinics needs improvement. The variations in the safety culture factor scores in Slovenian OOHC clinics point to the need to eliminate variations and improve working conditions in Slovenian OOHC clinics.

Safety Culture at Primary Healthcare Level: A Cross-Sectional Study among Employees with a Leadership Role

“…This domain covers the items such as the effect of communication on the management of patients and communication about safety issues. This domain was also perceived as low by other studies in Slovenian primary care (16). It seems that this safety culture domain needs improvement.…”

“…Some domains, such as Teamwork Climate, Safety Climate, and Working Conditions and Satisfaction were scored slightly higher and some, such as Stress Recognition, slightly lower. Teamwork Climate was perceived positively also by other studies in Slovenia and abroad (10,16,18). The domain Stress Recognition includes items through which the employees indicate that they are aware of the fact that fatigue and high workload affect a safety culture in a negative way.…”

“…Previous studies in patient safety culture at the primary healthcare level in Slovenia showed that it was perceived positively but there was still a lot of room for improvement (16). For example, more attention should be devoted to improving team collaboration with a clearer description of professional team roles (18).…”

“…The permission was given on June 3, 2016. There are six domains in the original SAQ -Short Form: Teamwork Climate (items 1-6), Safety Climate (items 7-13), Job Satisfaction (items [15][16][17][18][19] We also collected data on demographic characteristics (gender, age, profile, work experience, working period at this location, and location of work).…”

Safety culture in the primary health care settings based on workers with a leadership role: the psychometric properties of the Slovenian-language version of the safety attitudes questionnaire – short form

“…Patient safety features in primary healthcare have been investigated through a study on the Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe (QUALICOPC), dealing with the organisation and accessibility of primary healthcare services [23]. In addition, safety culture has been measured by the Slovenian-language version of the SAQ-AV in out-of-hours primary health care settings [24–26]. Out-of-hours settings in Slovenia differ from primary healthcare centres in terms of organisation, location, and staff.…”