Safety Culture—Just What Is It?

Abstract

HOPEFULLY, YOU HAVE BEEN HEARING about safety culture within your organization and units. If not, then this column should serve as a means for discussion with your leadership. If you have received information about what constitutes a safety culture, then hopefully you have also developed a good understanding of what safety culture entails. Nevertheless, a review of the qualities involved is always a good exercise because assuring that the organization has a positive safety culture is essential to patient safety. The continuing focus on patient safety is a result of evidence that one in three hospitalized patients will have an adverse event, and 6% of those will be severe enough to prolong hospitalization and send the patient home with a temporary or permanent disability. 1 Classen D.C. Resar R. Griffin F. et al. 'Global trigger tool' shows that adverse events in hospitals may be ten times greater than previously measured. Health Aff. 2011; 30: 581-589 Crossref PubMed Scopus (658) Google Scholar Jacqueline Ross, PhD, RN, CPAN, is a Senior Clinical Analyst, Department of Patient Safety, TDC, Napa, CA