Assessment of Patient Safety Culture in Primary Healthcare Services in Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is a critical component of healthcare quality. This study aimed at assessing the perceptions of primary healthcare staff members about patient safety culture and explores the areas of deficiency and opportunities for improvement concerning this issue.
 Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study surveyed 328 staff members in 28 primary healthcare facilities in Alexandria using an anonymous direct structured interview format of a modified “Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture” adopted questionnaire. The total number of respondents was 250 participants (response rate = 76.2%). The main outcome measures include patient safety culture score including sub scores on 12 dimensions and 42 items; patient safety grade, number of events reported and factors contributing to the adverse events.
 Results: The overall median% score for perception of patient safety culture at the facility level was 68.6%. After controlling of the confounders; being female respondent, being physicians or nurses or midwives, having long experience in PHC service and receiving education and training about safety issues were positively associated with positive response on patient safety culture scale. The domains with the highest positive score and are thus considered areas of strength were teamwork within units (80.0%), management support for patient safety (80.0%), supervisor expectations and actions promoting patient safety (75.0%) and handoffs and transitions (75.0%). Dimensions scoring the lowest and as such can be considered areas requiring improvement were overall perceptions of patient safety, frequency of events reported and staffing (60% give positive response for each). More than two-fifths (43.6%) did not report any events in the 12 months preceding the survey. The difference between professions regarding the most common procedure that causes adverse event is statistically significant. Patients' related factors such as ignorance and socio cultural acceptance were reported to be the most common factors contributing to the adverse events (92.4% of the studied participants reported that).
 Conclusions: Improving patient safety culture should be a priority among health center administrators. Healthcare staff should be encouraged to report errors

Assessment of patient safety culture among paramedical personnel at general and district hospitals, Fayoum Governorate, Egypt

“…The overall mean score for positive perception of patient safety culture dimensions was calculated to be 46.56%, compared to 39.3% by El-Shabrawy et al [ 14 ] in Beni Suef and 69% by Mohamed et al [ 15 ] in Alexandria. In comparison with other Arab countries, these results were lower than the findings documented by Ghobashi et al in a Kuwaiti study (69%) [ 16 ], El-Jardali et al in Lebanon (61.5%) [ 17 ], Alahmadi in Saudi Arabia (61%) [ 18 ], and Hamdan and Saleem in Palestine (54%) [ 19 ].…”

“…Evaluation of safety culture is the primary step towards improving the patient healthcare services in any healthcare organization and investigates the organizational conditions that negatively impact the patient and cause adverse events [13]. The overall mean score for positive perception of patient safety culture dimensions was calculated to be 46.56%, compared to 39.3% by El-Shabrawy et al [14] in Beni Suef and 69% by Mohamed et al [15] in Alexandria. In comparison with other Arab countries, these results were lower than the findings documented by Ghobashi et al in a Kuwaiti study (69%) [16], El-Jardali et al in Lebanon (61.5%) [17], Alahmadi in Saudi Arabia (61%) [18], and Hamdan and Saleem in Palestine (54%) [19].…”

Patient safety culture perceptions in the college of dentistry

“…The results of current study are similar to findings of other studies which are conducted in different hospitals in Riyadh [ 8 – 10 ] and Kuwait. [ 11 ] Authors found that the average percent positive dimension score of patient safety is high in Organizational Learning and Continuous Improvement and Teamwork within units while the score is low in Non-punitive Response to Error, Staffing, and Communication Openness.…”

Patient Safety Culture in Tunisia: Defining Challenges and Opportunities

“…However, it was developed in almost all the studies in PHC [2,9,11,13] and this may be due to the fact that PHC are small buildings with less staff compared to hospitals and an unsophisticated environment, which are the factors that encourage teamwork [15]. Actually, teamwork is known as a dynamic process of healthcare professionals with complementary backgrounds and skills sharing common health goals and exercising concerted efforts in patient care through interdependent collaboration and shared decision-making through open communication, which is critical to teamwork [16].…”

“…One of the study's limitations was that the instrument tool used was, actually, developed for use in hospitals setting and not for PHC [16]. The assessment of PSC using a self-administered questionnaire can be associated with a declaration bias.…”