Assessing elements of patient safety culture in Kermanshah health care and educational centers

Introduction: Annually, many accidents and preventable events happen for the patients hospitalized in treatment centers. Therefore, the related causing factors should be recognized in order to reduce the medical errors. Accordingly, the present study aimed to assess the relationship between patient's safety culture elements and medical errors and also the ways to tackle them. Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 380 employees working in the education and treatment centers affiliated with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2015. The hospital version of patient safety culture questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS software, version 19 using different statistical tests including multivariate analysis of variance and Pearson's correlation. Result: The patient safety culture was at an undesirable level in the study centers. Of the elements related to safety culture, the lowest positive scores belonged to 'issues related to employees', and 'reporting' with scores of 23% and 26%, respectively. On the other hand, 'team working in the organizations' (59%) and 'organizational learning' (57%) obtained the highest positive scores. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents did not report any errors. Conclusion: The results of present study emphasize on creating a desirable organizational atmosphere, the need for staff participation in various levels of decision making, and creating the culture of reporting errors in order to recognize the causing factors and to promote patient safety culture.