Psychometric properties of the AHRQ Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture: a factor analysis

Abstract

Background The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed a hospital patient safety culture survey in 2004, and has adapted this survey to other healthcare settings, such as nursing homes and medical offices, and most recently community pharmacies. However, it is unknown if safety culture dimensions developed in hospital settings can be transferred to community pharmacies. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Method The survey was administered to 543 community pharmacists in [state], United States. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the fit of our data with the proposed AHRQ model. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the underlying factor structure. Internal consistency reliabilities were calculated. Results A total of 433 usable surveys were returned (response rate of 80%). Results from the confirmatory factor analysis showed inadequate model fit for the original 36 item, 11-factor structure. Exploratory factor analysis showed that a modified 27 item, 4-factor structure better reflected the underlying safety culture dimensions in community pharmacies. The communication openness factor, with 3 items, dropped in its entirety while 6 items dropped from multiple factors. The remaining 27 items redistributed to form the 4-factor structure: safety related communication, staff training and work environment, organizational response to safety events, and staffing, work pressure and pace. Cronbach's α of 0.95 suggested good internal consistency. Conclusion Dimensions related to safety culture in a community pharmacy environment may differ from those in other healthcare settings such as in hospitals. Our findings suggest that validation studies need to be conducted before applying safety dimensions from other healthcare settings into community pharmacies.

A Grounded Theory Approach to Healthy Work Environment: Its Impact on Nurses, Patient Safety, and Significance in Healthcare Settings

“…In this study, the fifth thematic label was determined from four subthemes (Table 4), and are as follows: a) the healthcare environment influences patient safety, b) the way that it's done seems to backfire, c) communication, d) enough staffing, and e) teamwork and collaboration. Most of the responses from the participants of this study supported the results from the research conducted by Aboneh et al (2015) and Kieft et al (2014), which revealed the healthcare environment influenced patient safety.…”

“…According to Ritter (2011), healthcare settings should seek to understand the complex working environments and develop strategies that will improve the quality and safety of healthcare. Healthcare organizations that have safety cultures and work on evidence-based practice provide an HWE for the nurses and make continuous improvements on the culture of the organization (Aboneh, Look, Stone, Lester, & Chui, 2015).…”

“…A team of scholars forming part of the AHRQ's research portfolio described aspects of the organizational climate and its relationship with patient safety and its workers (Aboneh et al, 2015). Aboneh et al (2015) Healthcare organizations can create an HWE by fostering a safety culture (Sammer et al, 2010).…”

“…The health care environment influences patient safety. A team of scholars forming part of the AHRQ's research portfolio described aspects of the organizational climate and its relationship with the patient safety and its workers (Aboneh et al, 2015).…”

Assessment of the Daily Safety and Operations Huddle of a Pharmacy Department

“…This is in contrast to an overall score of excellent by 25% of our respondents. Aboneh [10] also used this community tool to assess pharmacy personnel perceptions of the safety culture in community, retail pharmacies in the United States. UF Health Shands has administered this AHRQ survey annually since 2012.…”