A Survey of Hospital Healthcare Professionals’ Perceptions Toward Patient Safety Culture in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Medical and allied health professionals should adopt error reduction as a key strategic priority and make patient safety improvement an ongoing, active process within their organization. Objective: The present study investigates the perceptions of healthcare professionals toward patient safety culture in hospitals throughout Hail Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This research, which uses a descriptive cross-sectional approach to evaluate the perceptions of healthcare professionals toward patient safety culture, was conducted at four major hospitals in Hail Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and involved 255 healthcare professionals, who served as respondents based on systematic random sampling. Standard deviation and the chi-square test of independence were used for statistical analysis. This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee (H-2016-057) of the University of Hail. Results: Among the patient safety aspects, patient safety grade received the highest mean value (3.56 ± 0.72), whereas handoff s and transitions received the least consensus (3.00 ± 0.34). Interestingly, hospital work experience signifi cantly correlated to work area (p = 0.026), communications (p = 0.037), and the number of events reported (p = 0.019) in the patient safety dimension. Moreover, the number of years in the area/unit signifi cantly related to the work area (p = 0.047) and supervisor/manager (p = 0.009). Only the number of events reported showed a signifi cant relationship with specialty or profession (p = 0.007). Conclusion: Healthcare professionals have an affi rmative view toward patient safety culture aspects, and positive relationships were found between the patient safety dimensions and study participants’ profi le. The fi ndings presented herein suggest that healthcare professionals affi rm the practice of patient safety culture. However, further research is required to continuously appraise the signifi cance of healthcare-based quality indicators. Overall, the assessment results suggest a platform for better intervention and transformation procedures targeting the promotion of patient safety culture.