Evaluation of safety management in headquarter and clinical setting in selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Safety management is the process of determining, analyzing, estimating, and preventing risks, and hospitals need to evaluate it due to the high sensitivity and stakeholder expectations. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the status of safety management in the selected hospitals’ headquarter and clinical settings.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed in 10 available hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2018 with a sample size of 124 people. Data collection tool was a 115-item questionnaire in two areas: headquarters (safety and accident committee, organization, and structure) and clinical setting (operating room and inpatient wards), and its validity and reliability was approved.

The general status of safety management in 10 hospitals was assessed as "moderate", the difference between the mean scores of hospital wards was statistically significant (p=0.003). These scores were inversely and significantly related to the hospital bed occupancy rate (p=0.011), and also a direct and significant relationship was observed between the total scores of the safety and the accidents committee (p=0.005).

To strengthen safety management in the inpatient wards, it is necessary that the referrals be managed and coordinated with the service capacity of wards. It is also necessary to improve the activities of headquarter (the safety and accident committee) due to its direct significant relationship with safety management of clinical wards.