Fostering a healthcare sector quality and safety culture

Purpose Quality issues, increasing patient expectations and unsatisfactory media reports are driving patient safety concerns. Developing a quality and safety culture (QSC) is, therefore, crucial for patient and staff welfare, and should be a priority for service providers and policy makers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most important QSC drivers, and thus propose appropriate operational actions for Saudi Arabian hospital managers and for managers in healthcare institutions worldwide. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative data from 417 questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Respondents were selected from various hospitals and managerial positions at a national level. Findings Findings suggest that error feedback (FAE) and communication quality (QC) have a strong role fostering or enhancing QSC. Findings also show that fearing potential punitive responses to mistakes made on the job, hospital staff are reluctant to report errors. Practical implications To achieve a healthcare QSC, managers need to implement preemptive or corrective actions aimed at ensuring prompt and relevant feedback about errors, ensure clear and open communication and focus on continuously improving systems and processes rather than on failures related to individual performance. Originality/value This paper adds value to national healthcare, as Saudi study results are probably generalizable to other healthcare systems throughout the world.