Institutional Practices of a Private Hospital in Saudi Arabia: An Initiative to Improve the Hospital’s Safety Culture

Abstract

Introduction: Study findings pertain to a private healthcare facility in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia, which highlighted its healthcare organization’s implementation of hospital-wide approach aimed at promoting culture change to enhance patient safety. Patient safety is a vital component of quality health care. Health care organizations continually strive for improvement, leading to a growing recognition of the importance of establishing a safe culture, most especially within the Kingdom of Saudi. Materials and Methods: The hospital's culture of safety was investigated using a descriptive research design. The study further discusses how the hospital was able to improve the safety culture within the confines of their organization by instituting several programs which forms as the framework of the hospital’s commitment to safety. The study covers all the healthcare professional of the hospital (clinical and non-clinical) to provide their perception on the topic. Results: This study yielded more than sixty percent (60%) response rate for three consecutive years which strongly supports the findings of the study. The institution’s safety culture has dramatically improved from 2017’s result of 46.4%, 58.6% (2018) and 74.4% in 2019 after engaging an organizational intervention which includes; leadership patient safety walk rounds, good catch campaign, improvement projects, adoption of lean management, continuous organization learning and development, quality accreditation and an intensified leadership support. A number of dimensions contributed to the highest perception of patient safety, including teamwork within and across units, organizational learning and continuous quality improvement, management support for patient safety, and an increase in the perception of overall patient safety culture by staff. Conclusion: The result suggested that the commitment of all healthcare professionals within the organization and an active engagement of managers and executives will absolutely result to positive change in the institution’s culture of safety.