Obstacles and Facilitators of Preventive Programs and Strategies for Medical Errors

Program and strategy play a significant role in the efficiency of hospitals. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the obstacles and facilitators of preventive programs and strategies for medical errors in order to improve the patient's safety. In this survey study errors profile of 2016, the error reporting process, and error handling were investigated. Then, a
self-written questionnaire was developed. The statistical population of this study consisted of managers, physicians, nurses, residents, and interns of the hospital. Due to the limited statistical population, sampling was not done in this study and the whole population was studied. After verifying the formal and content validity, from 240 distributed questionnaires, 148 completed questionnaires were received. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software and with descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage. The findings of this study showed that the participants in the study investigated the effect of process facilitators (with a mean of 3.24) more than structural facilitators (with a mean of 3.14) and the effect of structural barriers (with a mean of 3.13) more than process obstacles (with a mean of 3.47). Moreover, among the subset of structural facilitators, personnel clinical experience (with a mean of 3.59), and among the subset of process facilitators, the recruitment of a safety expert (with a mean of 3.33) and among the sub-set of structural barriers, hiding culture (with an Mean of 2. 57) and finally, among the subset of process barriers, lack of covering the 24-hour safety team (with a mean of 3.05) were evaluated by the study community as more important obstacles. According to the results of this study, it is recommended to pay more attention to hiding culture as a barrier and personnel clinical experience as a facilitators in designing and implementing preventive programs and strategies for medical errors.