Evaluating the Perceptions of Health Staff of Family Medicine Unit about Patient Safety Culture

Abstract

Objective: Patient safety culture is evaluated in a wide perspective from the systematic approach to transparency in error reporting and prevention ofmedical errors to how health staffs behave in this culture, how their value judgments should be, and the regulation of their beliefs and rules. This studyaimed to measure the perceptions of health workers in family medicine unit about patient safety culture. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in108 healthcare professionals working in family medicine units in family health centers in two district centers of Manisa province. Research data wereobtained with a questionnaire prepared with the literature on patient safety and evaluated statistically using SPSS 15 package program. Results: The meanage of the participants was 41.19±9.27. 48 (44.4%) of the participants are family physicians and 60 (55.6%) are family health staff. When the responses ofthe participants to the questions related to the patient safety culture are evaluated, the average of positive points is generally 81.47%. Evaluation of thefunctioning of the medical office "When someone in this office gets really busy, others help out" (90.7%), “This office trains staff when new processes areput into place” (89.8%) questions receive the two highest positive percentages, but “We have problems with workflow in this office” (62.9%) questionreceives the lowest positive percentage. In-office communication and patient monitoring, “This office reminds patients when they need to schedule anappointment for preventive or routine care” has the highest positive response with 94.3%, “It is difficult to raise disputes in this office.” has the lowestpositive response with 69.9%. Conclusion: In this study, the positive response rates regarding patient safety culture were found to be relatively highercompared to previous studies. However, the answers given to the questions related to the in-office workflow and disputes have the lowest positivepercentages. It can be suggested that studies evaluating the patient safety culture should plan in the light of these results at the family medicine units.