Assessment of patient safety culture in two emergency departments in Australia: a cross sectional study

Abstract

PurposePatient safety culture is a vital element to create patient safety in healthcare organisations. Emergency department (ED) professionals operate in unstable conditions that may pose risk to patient safety on day-to-day basis. The aim of this study was to assess the status of patient safety culture and to quantify the dimensions of safety culture in the ED setting.Design/methodology/approachThis was a descriptive cross sectional study that used a validated questionnaire distributed to the staff working in the nominated EDs . Perceptions on various dimensions of safety culture were reported and the frequency of positive responses for each dimension was calculated.Findings“Teamwork” is the only dimension that rated positive by over 70% of participants. Other dimensions rated below 50%, except for “Organisational learning–continuous improvement” which rated 51.2%. Areas that rated the lowest were “Handover and transitions”, “Staffing”, “Non-punitive response to error” and “Frequency of event reporting” with average positive response rate of 15.4%, 26%, 26.8% and 27.6%, respectively.Originality/valueThis study displayed a concerning perceptions held by participants about the deficiency of patient safety culture in their EDs. Moreover, it provided a baseline finding giving a clearer vision of the areas of patient safety culture that need improvement.