Scottish hospitals

C. W. Keevil, Detection of biofilms associated with pitting corrosion of copper pipework in Scottish hospitals in Biocorrosion (Eds. C. C. Gaylord, H. G. Morton), Biodeterioration Society, Kew, UK, 1989, pp. 48—62. 

A sample of 475 staff from 10 hospitals in Costa Rica, Gimeno et al. (2005) found that safety culture was related to self-reported work-related injuries. Another study of 789 hospital-based healthcare workers in the USA, found that experienced blood and body fluid exposure incidents for workers were lower when senior management support, safety feedback and training were perceived favourably (Gershon et al. 2000). In Japan, reduced needle-stick and sharp injuries to hospital workers were associated with safety culture factors, such as being involved in health and safety matters (Smith et al. 2010). In our Scottish hospital sample, we collected information on self-reports of worker injuries, as well as observed errors affecting patients. 

In order to identify areas of organisational culture that could be targeted to improve patient safety in Scottish hospitals, a safety culture survey was conducted. The aims of the study were first, to obtain a measure of safety culture from a sample of NHS acute hospitals in Scotland and then to test whether these culture scores were associated with clinical workers safety behaviours and patient and worker injuries. This would also provide a measure of safety culture within the Scottish acute hospital sector and contribute an organisational cultural perspective to the... 

Scottish Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (SHSPSC)... 

Williams, D., Olsen, S., Crichton, W, Witte, K., Fhn, R., Ingram, J. Campbell, M., Watson, M., Hopf, Y. and Cuthbertson, B. 2008. Detection of adverse events in a Scottish hospital using a consensus-based methodology. Scottish Medical Journal, 53,29-33. 

Draft Guide to Fire Precaution in Hospitals. Home Office, Scottish Home and Health Departments. 1983. 

At the end of an extensive survey of hospital laboratories in the UK, Duncan (unpublished report of the CUnical Resource and Audit Group, Scottish Office, Edinburgh 1997) concluded that .., the current utilization of the test, with no control of dietary fat intake, no correction for incomplete fecal collections and misgivings over analytical reliability, makes it a highly unsatisfactory investigation and probably of little clinical value. ... 

We thank Professor Gabriella Morreale de Escobar and Marfa Jesus Presas for the iodine determinations, and the staff of the Neonatal Unit, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School for their support. The work was supported by grants from the Scottish Executive, CEC EUTHYROID QLG3-2000-00930, Wellcome Trust, Tenovus (Scotland), Paediatric Metabolic Research Trust, Cerebra. 

Sarac, C., Flin, R., Meams, K. and Jackson, J. 2011. Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Psychometric analysis on a Scottish sample. BMJ Quality Safety, 20, 842-8. 

When healthcare workers safely behaviours were assessed through observational techniques, Zohar et al. (2007) showed both group and hospital level culture as predictors of the future safety behaviours (e.g. medication and emergency safety), observed in a sample of 955 nurses in Israel. Since observations can be difficult to gather in hospitals, self-report measures are also used to assess safety behaviours such as workers safety compliance and safety participation behaviours). Positive associations between safely culture and their self-reported measure of safety behaviours were shown in a sample of 525 employees in an Australian hospital (Neal et al. 2000). Later, improvements in these behaviours at the group level were linked to a reduction in future aceident rates (Neal and Griffin 2006). A similar measure was included as a measure of workers safety behaviour in this Scottish study. 

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