Assessment of Patient Safety Culture in Abu Arish General Hospital, Jazan, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: The concept of patient’s safety culture refers to the work and the joint actions of the members of an institution or organization with respect to their ability to detect errors and address and avoid them in the future and learn from them. Objectives: To assess safety culture in “Abu Arish” General Hospital to provide a starting point from which action planning begins and patient safety changes emerge. Methodology: The methodology of this study was based on the guidelines provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Data were collected using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture Form. Analysis of data was by Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programs. A survey questionnaire was distributed in “Abu Arish” General Hospital to 207 health care providers, including nurses, technicians, managers and medical staff. Results: The patient safety composites with the highest positive scores were teamwork within units (72%), organizational learning and continuous improvement (70%) and the composites with the lowest scores were non-punitive response to error (22%), staffing (32%), Handoffs & Transitions (38%), frequency of events reported (40%), communication openness (43%), hospital management support for patient safety (43%) and Teamwork Across Units (43%). Conclusions: This study provides an overall assessment of perceptions of safety among hospital staff in a general hospital. There are areas of strengths and weakness in the patient safety culture dimensions. There are several areas for improvement, including non-punitive response to errors, staffing, hospital handoffs & transitions and error reporting. Keywords: Patient safety, Saudi Arabia.