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Safety culture in a major accredited Irish university teaching hospital: a mixed methods study using the safety attitudes questionnaire.
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Date
2020-04-10
Authors
Gleeson, Laura
Tobin, Leanne
O'Brien, Gary L.
Crowley, Erin K.
Delaney, Aoife
O'Mahony, Denis
Byrne, Stephen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Published Version
Abstract
Background: The measurement of safety culture, the way in which members of an organisation think about and prioritise safety, in a hospital can provide valuable insight and inform quality improvement strategies. Aims: The aim of this study is to describe the safety culture of a university teaching hospital in the Republic of Ireland. Methods: This is a mixed methods survey study using the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ was distributed to all staff in the study hospital. Staff attitudes towards six domains of patient safety culture were assessed over 32 Likert-scaled items. Thematic analysis was performed on qualitative data. Results: A total of 768 staff members completed and returned a copy of the SAQ. The hospital scored above the international benchmark in five out of six domains, indicating a positive safety culture, but scored below the international benchmark in the domain 'Working Conditions'. This positive safety culture was not mirrored in the qualitative data, from which five themes emerged; three major-Staffing Issues, Patient-Focused Care and Hospital Environment-and two minor-Safe Reporting Culture and Training and Education. Conclusions: In this study, a mixed methods approach was successfully used to investigate the safety culture in a large Irish hospital. Although the SAQ results indicated a positive safety culture, the qualitative data revealed a number of issues that the hospital staff felt impacted negatively on patient safety. The results of this study will inform future work on the design of an intervention to improve patient safety in the hospital.
Description
Keywords
Irish healthcare , Medication safety , Patient safety , Quality improvement , Safety culture
Citation
Gleeson, L.L., Tobin, L., O'Brien, G. L., Crowley, E. K., Delaney, A., O'Mahony, D. and Byrne, S. (2020) 'Safety culture in a major accredited Irish university teaching hospital: a mixed methods study using the safety attitudes questionnaire', Irish Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.1007/s11845-020-02228-0
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Copyright
© Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland 2020. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Irish Journal of Medical Science. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11845-020-02228-0