Validation study of the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) in public hospitals of Heilongjiang province, China.

Ying Li,Qunhong Wu,Xue Zhang,Yanming Zhao,Mo Hao,Jun Lv,Chi Zhang,Lijun Gao,Mingli Jiao,Xiaowen Zhao,Jinghua Liu,Zhaoquan Huang,Wuxiang Shi,Yu Cui,Xia Li,Mei Yin,Hongkun Ma,Gianni Virgili

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179486

Abstract

PurposeThe objective of this study was to validate the reliability and validity of the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) in Heilongjiang province, northern China.MethodsThe SAQ was distributed to 27 public hospitals in five cities across Heilongjiang province. The Cronbach’s α, item–dimension and dimension–dimension correlations were calculated. Descriptive analyses and confirmatory factor analysis were also performed.ResultsThe recovery rate of the questionnaire was 84.45%. The validity and reliability measures of the SAQ were acceptable. The goodness-of-fit index from the confirmatory factor analysis showed a reasonable model fit (CFI = 0.93, GFI = 0.91, RMSEA = 0.05). The Cronbach’s α value for the scale was 0.91 and ranged from 0.66 to 0.91 for each of the scales. The SAQ showed good internal consistency reliability.ConclusionThe SAQ had satisfactory psychometric properties and could be a useful tool to measure safety attitudes in public hospitals in Heilongjiang province in China.

Highlights

Despite the continuous improvement of medical technology, many people are still treated with the risk of harm
According to the geographical distribution, time, and resources, we investigated the areas in the north (Jiamusi), south (Mudanjiang), west (Qiqihar and Daqing), and centre (Harbin) of the province
This study is an initial step to establishing the psychometric properties of the safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ), and further research is needed to refine the instrument and re-examine its psychometric properties in the light of these results

Summary

Introduction

Despite the continuous improvement of medical technology, many people are still treated with the risk of harm. Patient safety is an important aspect of healthcare organisations. Patient safety is an important component of healthcare quality[3], and this has been highlighted by healthcare organisations following the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report, ‘To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System’[4]. An overarching culture of patient safety has been suggested as a core organisational mechanism of hospitals to promote safe, effective, and timely healthcare[5]. Patient safety culture can have a critical impact on the safety of healthcare environments[6]. Patient safety culture was defined by the British Health & Safety Commission as ‘the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organisation’s safety management’[7]

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Conclusion