Psychometric properties of the Norwegian version of the hospital survey on patient safety culture in a prehospital environment

Abstract

BackgroundTo develop a culture of patient safety in a regime that strongly focuses on saving patients from emergencies may seem counter-intuitive and challenging. Little research exists on patient safety culture in the context of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and the use of survey tools represents an appropriate approach to improve patient safety. Research indicates that safety climate studies may predict safety behavior and safety-related outcomes. In this study we apply the Norwegian versions of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and assess the psychometric properties when tested on a national sample from the EMS.MethodsThis study adopted a web based survey design. The Norwegian HSOPSC has 13 dimensions, consisting of 46 items, in addition to two single-item outcome variables. SPSS (version 21) was used for descriptive data analysis, estimating internal consistency, and performing exploratory factor analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to test the dimensional structure of the instruments using Amos (version 21).ResultsN = 1387 (27%) EMS employees participated in the survey. Overall, acceptable psychometric properties were observed, i.e. acceptable internal consistencies and construct validity. The patient safety climate dimensions with highest scores (number of positive answers) were “teamwork within units” and “manager expectations & actions promoting patient safety”. The dimension “hospital management support for patient safety” had the lowest score.ConclusionsThe results provided a validated instrument, the Prehospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PreHSOPSC), for measuring patient safety climate in an EMS setting. In addition, the explanatory power was strong for several of the outcome dimensions; i.e., several of the safety climate dimensions have a strong predictive effect on outcome variables related to employees’ perceptions on patient safety and safety-related attitude.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3576-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Association between culture of patient safety and burnout in pediatric hospitals

“…Sorskar et al, [45] when applying HSOPSC in an emergency medical service, identified that the most fragile dimension was focused on the "hospital management support for patient safety" process, however, the dimension " non punitive response to error " showed a statistical correlation with the level of patient safety, proving to be an important factor to promote safe patient care.…”

Relationship between patient safety culture and job burnout in Iranian nurses: Assessing the mediating role of second victim experience using structural equation modelling

“…The Persian version of the hospital survey on patient safety culture (HSOPCS) was used to measure this variable in our study (Moghri et al, 2012). It is used worldwide as a valid and reliable tool for measuring the level of patient safety culture in hospitals (Sørskår, Abrahamsen, Olsen, Sollid, & Abrahamsen, 2018). The questionnaire has 42 items that measure the different dimensions of patient safety culture.…”

Assessing safety climate in prehospital settings: testing psychometric properties of a common structural model in a cross-sectional and prospective study

“…HEMS is a high-competence service and represents the sharp end in the prehospital chain [30]. The content of this paragraph is previously described in [28].…”

“…Although minor adjustments had to be implemented, and some items were pointed out as challenging in the prehospital context, no items were left out or conceptually changed before distribution of the survey. The HSOPSC-S items is retrieved from [28, 29], and minor adjustments and challenging items is thoroughly discussed in [28].…”

“…One such instrument is the Hospital Survey On Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC), developed in 2004 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and later translated to several languages [27]. The Norwegian version of the HSOPSC instrument was recently adjusted and validated for the prehospital environment [28]. Another instrument is a rebuilt shorter version, the HSOPSC-S, which has been validated for the hospital and the petroleum sector [29].…”