Patient safety in organizational culture as perceived by leaderships of hospital institutions with different types of administration^*

Seguridad del paciente en la cultura organizativa: percepción de los liderazgos de instituciones hospitalarias de distintas naturalezas administrativas

Abstract

OBJECTIVE

To identify the perceptions of leaderships toward patient safety culture dimensions in the routine of hospitals with different administrative profiles: government, social and private organizations, and make correlations among participating institutions regarding dimensions of patient safety culture used.

METHOD

A quantitative cross-sectional study that used the Self Assessment Questionnaire 30 translated into Portuguese. The data were processed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) in addition to descriptive statistics, with statistical significance set at p-value ≤ 0.05.

RESULTS

According to the participants' perceptions, the significant dimensions of patient safety culture were 'patient safety climate' and 'organizational learning', with 81% explanatory power. Mean scores showed that among private organizations, higher values were attributed to statements; however, the correlation between dimensions was stronger among government hospitals.

CONCLUSION

Different hospital organizations present distinct values for each dimension of patient safety culture and their investigation enables professionals to identify which dimensions need to be introduced or improved to increase patient safety.

Descriptors:
Patient Safety; Organizational Culture; Health Services Administration; Quality of Health Care.