Purpose For many years, the concept of safety culture has attracted researchers from all over the world, and more particularly in the area of healthcare services. The purpose of this paper is to measure safety culture dimensions in order to improve and promote healthcare in Algeria. Design/methodology/approach The used approach consists of getting a better understanding of healthcare safety culture (HSC) by measuring the perception of healthcare professionals in order to guide promotion actions. For this, the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was used in a pilot hospital setting where it was distributed on a number of 114 health professionals chosen by stratified random sampling. Findings The results showed that the identified priority areas for HSC improvement help in establishing a trust culture and a non-punitive environment based on the system and not on the individual. Originality/value Safety is recognized as a key aspect of service quality, thus measuring the HSC can help establish an improvement plan. In Algerian health facilities, this study is considered the first to examine perceptions in this particular area. The current results provide a baseline of strengths and opportunities for healthcare safety improvement, allowing the managers of this type of facilities to take steps that are more effective.

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PurposeThe assessment of patient safety culture (PSC) is a major priority for healthcare providers. It is often realized using quantitative approaches (questionnaires) separately from qualitative ones (patient safety culture maturity model (PSCMM)). These approaches suffer from certain major limits. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to overcome these limits and to propose a novel approach to PSC assessment.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed approach consists of evaluating PSC in a set of healthcare establishments (HEs) using the HSOPSC questionnaire. After that, principal component analysis (PCA) and K-means algorithm were applied on PSC dimensional scores in order to aggregate them into macro dimensions. The latter were used to overcome the limits of PSC dimensional assessment and to propose a quantitative PSCMM.FindingsPSC dimensions are grouped into three macro dimensions. Their capitalization permits their association with safety actors related to PSC promotion. Consequently, a quantitative PSC maturity matrix was proposed. Problematic PSC dimensions for the studied HEs are “Non-punitive response to error”, “Staffing”, “Communication openness”. Their PSC maturity level was found underdeveloped due to a managerial style that favors a “blame culture”.Originality/valueA combined quali-quantitative assessment framework for PSC was proposed in the present study as recommended by a number of researchers but, to the best of our knowledge, few or no studies were devoted to it. The results can be projected for improvement and accreditation purposes, where different PSC stakeholders can be implicated as suggested by international standards.

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Purpose: The evaluation of patient safety culture is conducted using quantitative methods based on the use of questionnaires and qualitative ones focused on the deployment of cultural maturity models. These methods are known to suffer from certain major limits. This article aims to overcome the difficulties encountered by both methods and to propose a novel approach to the assessment of PSC. Methodology: The approach proposed in this article consists of applying a combined method, based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-means algorithm, to group together PSC dimensions into macro-dimensions whose exploitation allows to overcome the difficulties encountered with dimensional analysis of PSC and then, serve as a basic support for the development of a patient safety culture maturity model. Findings: The results of the combined method PCA / k-means shows that PSC dimensions can be grouped into three macro-dimensions that were capitalized in a first place using factors related to the development of PSC and in a second place to develop a quantitative maturity matrix that helped in the identification of PSC maturity levels.Originality: The merit of our proposal is to work towards a quali-quantitative evaluation of safety culture recommended by a good number of researchers but, to our knowledge, few or no studies are devoted to this hybrid or systematic evaluation of safety culture. Thus, the results can also be projected to implicate PSC actors and to frame the evaluation pf PSC maturity by international standards.