The relationship between patient safety culture and the establishment of national accreditation management standards in a teaching hospital in Ardabil, Iran

Accreditation deals with the systematic evaluation of hospitals with the aim of promoting safety culture and guaranteeing the quality of care provision. Paying attention to management standards can be effective in improving patient safety culture. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between patient safety culture and the establishment of national accreditation management standards in a teaching hospital in Ardabil, Iran.

In this descriptive study, 234 of the hospital managers and staff were selected thorough convenience sampling (28 managers and 206 personnel). Data were collected by means of a demographic questionnaire, the establishment of managerial standards scale and the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 with ANOVA, independent t-test and Pearson correlation.

The mean age of the personnel was 33.4±5.5 and the mean age of managers was 39.5±6.3. There was a significant direct relationship between patient safety standards and accreditation management standards (r=0.38, p<0.001). The mean score of organizational safety culture was 130.04±18.29 and the score of establishing management standards was 737.59±87.47. The overall percentage of positive responses to the items of the safety culture questionnaire was 46.7%.

In hospitals the existence of more committed management team, the higher patient safety culture level. In addition, it seems that when a stronger head nurses manage hospital wards, the more patient safety-related activities will be implemented by the staff.