Evaluation of Safety Culture in a Private Healthcare Organisation: A Prelude to a Quality Improvement Strategy

Abstract

Abstract Background: A culture of patient safety in healthcare can go a long way in ensuring that patient needs are always cared for. The consequences of not implementing a patient safety culture can be catastrophic for patients, their families, the workforce and the broad healthcare system. Patients can lose faith in the healthcare system whilst the cost of claims can be prohibitive to any investment on Quality Improvement. Staff engagement in the evaluation of patient safety culture is important so that organisations can appreciate where their system deficiencies are and what appropriate improvement actions could be. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the culture of safety and attitudes to risk amongst staff working in an innovative and fast-paced private UK healthcare provider. Methods: Between October 2019 and January 2020, we distributed the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) to all staff in our three flagship centres in UK. We performed face to face staff interviews and observations of processes and procedures, through an independent trainer in Human Factors and we conducted a culture survey on the UK Leadership team and all centre managers, in order to gauge their perception of safety culture. The survey aimed to capture what works well in the organisation, which attitudes needed to be reinforced and which attitudes needed to change. Results: We received 34 completed SAQs from centre management, chemotherapy and pharmacy, diagnostics and radiotherapy. Staff interviews triangulated the SAQ results, whilst the survey was analysed for themes under three headings, namely what works well, which attitudes needed to be reinforced and which attitudes needed to change. Conclusions: The study results supported the development of a Quality Improvement strategy in our organisation and are applicable to all healthcare systems. Keywords Healthcare, Patient safety, Quality, Quality improvement