Measuring patient safety climate in operating rooms: Validation of the Spanish version of the hospital survey on patient safety

Objective: The measurement of patient safety climate within hospitals, and specifically in operating rooms is a basic tool for the development of the patient's safety policy. There are no validated Spanish versions of instruments to measure safety climate. The objective of this research was to validate the Spanish version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety (HSOPS (R)), with the addition of a module for surgical units, to evaluate the patient safety climate in operating rooms. Methods: Survey validation study. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety (HSOPS (R)) was applied to health workers from 6 acute general hospitals, from Medellin (Colombia), with surgical procedures greater than 300 per month, 18 items were added considered specific for Operating Rooms. For construct validation, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used, utilizing principal components as the extraction method. Reliability was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha. Results: A 10 dimensions model was obtained with EFA, most of the dimensions of the original questionnaire were conserved, although the factorial structure was not reproduced. Two new dimensions emerged from the added items. The Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.66 and 0.87. Conclusions: We found the HSOPS questionnaire is valid and reliable for measuring patient safety climate in Spanish speaking Latin American countries. Two additional dimensions are proposed for Operating Rooms.