Patient's safety culture status among educational hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2011

Patients’ safety culture is one of the key elements to safety promotion and improvement of the quality of patient care. Few studies have been conducted about patients’ safety culture in the country. Here، patients’ safety culture status among educational hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences was studied using Texas university SAQ questionnaire. In a cross sectional study in 2011، four out of nine hospitals affiliated with Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were chosen from North، East and West of Tehran metropolitan، based on their magnitude and geographical dispersion. Two of these hospitals were big (more than 300 beds)، and two were small (less than 300 beds). The study population consisted of pharmacists، medical assistants، nurses، operating room technicians، nutrition experts، and practitioners in radiology and laboratory departments. In this study data collection tool was a validated & reliable (r=0. 88) Farsi translated version of Texas university questionnaire (SAQ)، focusing on eight areas of patients’ safety culture. 58% of samples were nurses with more than two year of experience. In this study، patients’ safety culture was in the moderate level among studied hospitals and no significant difference was observed between them. However، a significant difference was seen among hospitals، in terms of management and expectations of safety improvement along with staffs concerns (p<0. 009). A significant difference was also seen in total score of safety culture and five areas of safety culture، based on organizational position of the respondents (p<0. 05). The strongest dimension of patients'' safety culture in studied hospitals was team work area with 74% positive responses. ‍ Patients'' safety culture in the target hospitals was in the middle level. Hence، interventions for cultural improvement considering hospital characteristics are required.