Perception of medical-surgical wards’ patients from safety culture: A cross-sectional and multicenter study

 Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of safety culture in hospitals can be the basis for developing plans to improve the safety status of patients. This study aimed to determine the level of patient safety culture (PSC) from their view in medical-surgical wards of five teaching hospitals in Zanjan.

 This cross-sectional study was performed on 245 patients admitted to medical-surgical wards of five teaching hospitals in the Zanjan, Iran, from 2020-Agust-22 to 2020-November-21. Poisson time sampling method was used. Data collection was performed using a demographic information questionnaire and PSC scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18 and descriptive statistics, independent t test, and one-way analysis of variance.

 The mean of total PSC was 3.63±0.60 out of 5. The highest mean of PSC was related to organizing and planning for care (3.87±0.71) and communication and teamwork (3.80±0.70). The lowest mean was related to information dissemination (3.31±0.60).

 Safety culture or, in other words, patients’ perception of the safety situation prevailing in studied wards and hospitals was moderate. Therefore, it needs to be upgraded and improved. Among the various dimensions of patient-perceived safety, the manner and extent of information sharing was worse. It is suggested that plans be made to direct actions to improve the patient’s safety culture in general and in the field of information dissemination in particular.