Abstract
IntroductionAdverse events pose a serious threat to quality patient care. Promoting a culture of safety is essential for reducing adverse events. This study aims to assess healthcare providers’ perceptions of patient safety culture in three selected hospitals in the Upper East region of Ghana.MethodsThe English version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire was administered to 406 clinical staff. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 23, was used to analyze the data. The results were presented using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Analysis and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).ResultsIt was found that two out of twelve patient safety culture dimensions recorded high positive response rates (≥ 70%). These include teamwork within units (81.5%) and organizational learning (73.1%). Three patient safety culture dimensions (i.e. staffing, non-punitive response to error and frequency of events reported) recorded low positive response rates (≤ 50%). The overall perception of patient safety correlated significantly with all patient safety culture dimensions, except staffing. There was no statistically significant difference in the overall perception of patient safety among the three hospitals.ConclusionGenerally, healthcare providers in this study perceived patient safety culture in their units as quite good. Some of the respondents perceived punitive response to errors. Going forward, healthcare policy-makers and managers should make patient safety culture a top priority. The managers should consider creating a ‘blame-free’ environment to promote adverse event reporting in the hospitals.
Highlights
Adverse events pose a serious threat to quality patient care
The English version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire was administered to 406 clinical staff
The managers should consider creating a ‘blame-free’ environment to promote adverse event reporting in the hospitals
Summary
Adverse events pose a serious threat to quality patient care. Adverse events account for more deaths than motoraccident, breast cancer and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) [4]. In this regard, the World Health Organization is urging countries to pay the closest possible attention to the problem of patient safety and to establish and strengthen science-based systems necessary for improving patient safety and quality of care [5, 6]. Studies have shown that promoting patient safety culture among healthcare providers is a key to reducing adverse events and maintaining quality of care [7, 8]. According to Richardson and Storr (8), clinicians are among the main drivers of patient safety, because they have direct contact with patients [9, 10]
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