Patient safety culture in the perception of health professionals: A mixed methods research study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the patient safety culture perceived by health professionals working in a hospital and to understand the elements influencing it. Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed methods study, conducted in 2017 in two interrelated stages in a hospital. The quantitative stage was carried out by applying the questionnaire to 618 professionals and the qualitative stage, with ten, using the focus group technique. The analysis was descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and of content for the qualitative data. Subsequently, the data were submitted to integrated analysis. Results: Of the 12 dimensions, seven were considered weak, the most critical being “non-punitive response to error” with 28.5% of positive answers. Bureaucratic, poorly designed and uncoordinated processes, regional decisions, communication failures, hierarchy, overload, punishment and judicialization were related to the perception. Conclusions: The patient safety culture was considered weak, and elements related to work organization, people management and legal risk influenced this negative perception.

Keywords

• Patient safety. Organizational culture. Safety management. Quality assurance
• health care. Hospital services. Quality of health care