Perceptions of patient safety culture among staff of selected hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Patient safety is a critical component of health care quality. Safety culture plays an important role in the approach toward greater patient safety in health care settings. The purpose of this study is to measure patient safety culture in three teaching hospitals affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS). This research is a cross sectional study. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture -HSOPSC -was distributed hospital–wide in these hospitals. It evaluates ten patient safety culture dimensions and four outcomes. In total, 311 individual responded (overall response rate = 90 per cent), including 198 nurses, 57 physicians, 32 pharmacy, laboratory and radiology assistants and 24 of other staff. Research findings indicate that the patient safety culture scores of selected hospitals were considerably low. The lowest scores were “non-punitive responses to error” (17/8 per cent), “teamwork across hospital units (18/2 per cent), “feedback and communication about error” (19/8 per cent) and “communication openness” (19/9 per cent). The dimension “teamwork within hospital units” generated the highest score (47/2 per cent). In addition, the staff of hospitals “A& B” graded the safety performance of their hospitals as acceptable and hospital “C” performance was graded as poor. According to respondents, in the hospital “A” only 1-2 events were reported during past 12 month and in hospitals “B” and “C” no events were reported. Findings of this research indicate that the important aspects of the patient safety culture in these hospitals need improvement. This is an important challenge for all managers desiring improvement in patient safety.