A nationwide Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in Belgian hospitals: setting priorities at the launch of a 5-year patient safety plan. Issue 9 (27th August 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vlayen, Annemie; Hellings, Johan; Claes, Neree; Peleman, Hilde; Schrooten, Ward
• Is Part Of: BMJ quality & safety. Volume 21:Issue 9(2012)
• Page Start: 760
• Page End: 767
• Publication Date: 2012-08-27
• Subjects: Organisational culture -- benchmarking -- patient safety -- cluster analysis -- assessment -- health policy -- organization -- patient safety -- safety culture; Medical care -- Quality control -- Periodicals; Health facilities -- Risk management -- Periodicals; Medical errors -- Prevention -- Periodicals; 362.106805
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2011-051607
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2044-5415

Abstract

Abstract : Objective: To measure patient safety culture in Belgian hospitals and to examine the homogeneous grouping of underlying safety culture dimensions. Methods: The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was distributed organisation-wide in 180 Belgian hospitals participating in the federal program on quality and safety between 2007 and 2009. Participating hospitals were invited to submit their data to a comparative database. Homogeneous groups of underlying safety culture dimensions were sought by hierarchical cluster analysis. Results: 90 acute, 42 psychiatric and 11 long-term care hospitals submitted their data for comparison to other hospitals. The benchmark database included 55 225 completed questionnaires (53.7% response rate). Overall dimensional scores were low, although scores were found to be higher for psychiatric and long-term care hospitals than for acute hospitals. The overall perception of patient safety was lower in French-speaking hospitals. Hierarchical clustering of dimensions resulted in two distinct clusters. Cluster I grouped supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety, organisational learning–continuous improvement, teamwork within units and communication openness, while Cluster II included feedback and communication about error, overall perceptions of patient safety, non-punitive response to error, frequency of events reported, teamwork across units, handoffs and transitions, staffing and management support for patient safety. Conclusion: The nationwide safety culture assessment confirms the need for a long-term national initiative to improve patient safety culture and provides each hospital with a baseline patient safety culture profile to direct an intervention plan. The identification of clusters of safety culture dimensions indicates the need for a different approach and context towards the implementation of interventions aimed at improving the safety culture. Certain clusters require unit level improvements, whereas others demand a hospital-wide policy.