Analysis of Patient Safety Culture from the Viewpoint of the Clinical Staff of Hospitals Covered by Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2022

Abstract

Background and purpose: An organization's safety culture is the product of its values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral patterns that define the organization's commitment and framework for managing safety and health. The purpose of evaluating the safety culture is to identify the current state of the safety culture raise the awareness of the employees in this field evaluate the interventions related to safety and track the changes that have been made. The present study was conducted to analyze the status of patient safety culture among the employees of hospitals covered by Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2022. Materials and methods: The current descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study was conducted in 1401 on 440 employees of medical and educational hospitals covered by Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The sample size was calculated using Cochran's formula and the sampling method was simply random. The tool used in the Standard Patient Safety Culture Questionnaire (HSOPSC) The questionnaire had 42 questions, and 12 dimensions of the patient safety culture including dimensions of general understanding of the patient, organizational learning and continuous improvement, discipline within hospital departments, non-punitive policy in cases of errors, issues Work related to staff, manager/supervisor expectations and actions to promote patient safety, open communication channels, feedback and exchange of information about errors, hospital management support, teamwork among hospital departments, hospital handovers and transfers, and frequency of incident reporting. Unwantedness was measured based on a five-point Likert scale. The average score of less than 2.5 indicates a low patient safety culture, between 2.5 and 3.75 an acceptable state of safety culture, and 3.75 and above indicates the patient safety culture is a strength of the hospital. The study was conducted with IR.TUMS.SPH.REC.1400.289 code of ethics. Analysis was done using Spss 24 software and independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Friedman. Results: Most of the participants (47%) were 30 to 40 years old and had work experience of 1 to 10 years (44.6%). Also, most of the studied people (59%) were on rotating shifts. The overall status of patient safety culture in hospitals covered by Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences was 64.4% with an average of 3.22±0.43, so 86.1% of the participating employees considered the patient safety status as an average. Among the dimensions of patient safety culture, the highest and lowest scores are respectively related to the dimensions of "teamwork within hospital departments" with a mean and standard deviation of 3.90±0.79 (78 percent) and "hospital delivery and transfers" with a mean, and the standard deviation was 2.75±0.92 (55%). According to the single-sample independent parametric T-test, the score obtained from the status of patient safety culture in covered hospitals was higher than the average standard score of 3 (P<0.05). Patient safety culture in people with higher service experience had a better condition than people with less experience (P<0.05). No significant difference was observed in the status of patient safety culture in different work shifts of the participants (P<0.05). Also, teaching hospitals had a better average patient safety culture than non-teaching hospitals (P<0.05). Conclusion: Based on the findings, hospital transfers were identified as one of the weakest areas. The implementation of appropriate training courses, such as workshops and in-service training, for correct patient transfer and handover is recommended. Additionally, empowering staff to freely question and critique decisions and actions of senior personnel regarding patient safety concerns is crucial.

Keywords

• hospitals
• patient safety
• patients
• safety management
• safety culture