TOOLS AND KEY ASPECTS OF ASSESSING PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE IN MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

Relevance: Improving the quality of medical care and preventing practical errors depends on the patient safety culture of the medical organization. The assessment of the patient safety culture helps to identify problem areas and creates a basis for improving safety, which leads to improved quality of care and trust in medical organizations. The study of safety culture assessment tools contributes to the development of methods that take into account the unique needs of each medical organization, provides an opportunity for a more accurate and relevant assessment of the current safety culture. Objective: The purpose of this review was to analyze the tools used to assess patient safety culture, as well as the factors influencing patient safety culture. Search strategy: This paper presents a literary review from CINAHL, Google Scholar and PubMed sources for the last 10 years from January 2013 to December 2023. The articles included in the review were published in English. Results: Based on the results of the search, 59 articles were selected that met all the selection criteria. The research assessed patient safety culture using six tools: the Hospital Safety Culture Questionnaire (HSPSC), the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), the Patient Safety Climate in healthcare organizations (PSCHO), the modified Stanford Tool (MSI2006), the Scottish Hospital Safety Questionnaire (SHSQ) and the Austrian questionnaire the Patient Safety Climate (APaSKI). Important elements that shape a patient safety culture include teamwork, organizational and behavioral skills training. Error messages, security awareness, gender, work experience, and staff numbers are also key factors. Conclusions: Teamwork, organizational and behavioral training are among the factors that have a significant impact on patient safety culture. Error reporting and awareness of safety standards, gender and demographic data, work experience and staff are additional critical factors that need to be considered to improve the perception of a patient safety culture. The data obtained demonstrate the growing interest of representatives of the healthcare industry in assessing the general culture of patient safety in hospitals.