Patient Safety Culture Assessment in Primary Care

Abstract

Introduction. An important condition of patient safety management is a supportive patient safety culture (PSC) in order to identify possible weaknesses and to develop improvement strategies so recurrence of incidents can be minimized. Measuring perceptions of PSC is already established in high-risk industries such as aviation, nuclear energy, and oil-drilling industry. Hospitals are also aware of the importance of a just culture as an aspect of the organizational culture. However, the majority of patients are treated in primary care and patient safety culture assessments in this setting are scares. Methods. An observational, cross-sectional study design was applied by using the SCOPE-PC, including seven PSC dimensions. A dimension score above 75% represents a positive attitude and a score less than 50% presents a negative attitude. Results. In total, 349 primary healthcare professionals (mainly nurses) completed the survey. Three dimensions scored below 50%: Handover and Teamwork (39.6%), Adequate Procedures and Working Conditions (43.3%), and Intention to Report (42.6%). The highest dimension score was found for Support and Fellowship (69.7%), followed by Organizational Learning (68.1%), Patient Safety Management (62.6%), and Open Communication and Learning from Error (58.6%). Statistical differences were found between professions for Open Communication and Learning from Error and Patient Safety Management: managers scored significantly higher than healthcare professionals and support staff. Conclusion. The present study is the first to measure PSC among primary home care nurses working in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Although patient safety is perceived as good, scores on PSC dimensions were relatively low. Results suggest that further efforts should be made regarding handover and teamwork, procedures and working conditions, and intention to report incidents.