Patient Safety Culture perceptions

Bodur, S. andFiliz, E. 2010. Validity and reliabihty of Turkish version of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and perception of patient safety in pubhc hospitals in Turkey. BMC Health Service Research, 10,28. 

One means of gathering data for monitor indicators is patient safety culture questionnaires. We have developed a patient safety culture questionnaire, TUKU, that measures employees perceptions of the organisational functions depicted in Table 9.4 as well as employees psychological states, such as sense of control and worry about patient safety (Reiman et al. 2013). In one hospital, the results of the questionnaire were compared with the ratio of patient safety incidents at the hospital s 40 units 16 months after the safety culture questionnaire was administered. The results, which must be treated with caution due to the small sample size, indicated that perceptions of work process management , work conditions management . 

In the newest report, patient safety culture was included as one of the safe practices that were reviewed for its evidence, both as a practice and in terms of the context sensitivity of the practice and its adoption. In reviewing the evidence on patient safety culture as a practice. Weaver et al. (2013) suggest that developing a culture of safety is a core element of many efforts to improve patient safety and healthcare quality. Their systematic review identified and assessed interventions used to promote safety culture or climate in acute care settings. Based on this review the authors indicate that there is evidence suggesting that interventions can improve perceptions of safety culture and potentially reduce patient harm. 

The measurement of safety culture has now become a core component of patient safety and additional patient safety culture assessment instruments will be needed to accommodate organisational sehings that cover the continuum of care in multiple settings. It will also be necessaiy to examine differences, as well as similarities, in staff perceptions of patient safety culture across different settings of care. In addition, it is necessary to examine in these other healthcare settings the relationships between patient safety culture and patient perceptions of care, as well as clinical outcome measures, as has been done in the hospital setting. 

Jones et al. (2008) Error Reporting System Two years Critical access hospitals Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Overall perception of patient safety increased from 69% to 72% other dimensions of survey showed comparable increases... 

Clearly, there is a need to measure sources of variation in safety culture perceptions relating to individual and hospital characteristics within hospitals, in order to implement targeted interventions (Jackson et al. 2010). For instance, it is hypothesised that members with the same educational background share a common set of cultural features. In addition, hospitals comprise many different types of wards and units, with a high diversity in offered services, patient populations, organisational stractures and protocols, which might explain variability inpatient safety culture perceptions. So it can be assumed that safety culture is associated with specific professions and with the levels of complexity and intrinsic hazards associated with healthcare delivered in different work areas (Singer et al. 2009). 

Kim, J., Kyungeh, A., Kim, M. K., Yoon, S. H., Nurse s Perception of Error Reporting and Patient Safety Culture in Korea, Western Journal of Nursing Research, Vol. 29,... 

Singer, S., Meterko, M., Baker, L., Gaba, D., Falwell, A. and Rosen, A. 2007. Workforce perceptions of hospital safety culture Development and vahdation of the patient safety climate in healthcare organizations survey. Health Services Research, 42(5), 1999-2021. 

Several instruments have been developed to assess hospital staff s perceptions of aspects of workplace safety culture and a number of studies have reported associations between hospital safety culture and safety outcome measures (Jackson et al. 2010). Profiling the hospital safety culture scores is relatively straightforward but finding safety outcome measures for patients or workers is more challenging (Flin 2007). Different types of safety outcome data can be collected, e.g. (i) hospital incident records for staff or patients or clinical data for patients, (ii) self-reports of incidents and injuries by workers or patients and (iii) workers safety behaviours (self-reported or observed). 

Notes Safety Culture Dimension 1 Hospital management support for patient safety 2 Supervisor/manager expectations/actions 3 Teamwork across hospital units 4 Teamwork within units 5 Communication openness 6 Hospital handoffs and transitions 7 Nonpunitive response to error 8 Feedback and communication about error 9 Staffing 10 Organizational learning Outcome dimensions 11 Overall perceptions of safety 12 Frequency of event reporting. 

The principle of benchmarking safety cultrrre perceptions in Belgian hospitals is based on the respondents positive attitude towards patient safety. As such, the comparative report only considers explicitly positive answers of hospital staff towards differerrt safely culture dimensions. This approach has the lirrritation that neutral or negative perceptions are not separately taken into accormt. 

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