Perception of Patient Safety Culture in the Framework of the Psychosocial Care Network in Western Amazon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The culture of patient safety should be considered a guiding principle for different areas of health. This research presents the results of an analysis on Patient Safety Culture (PSC), according to the perception of health professionals who work in the Psychosocial Care Network, through a descriptive observational cross-sectional study, using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in a municipality in the Western Amazon of Brazil. Sixty-nine (69) professionals expressed that the best dimensions evaluated were: “expectations and actions to promote the safety of supervisors and managers” (75%) and “support from hospital management to patient safety” (64%). The worst evaluations were: “non-punitive responses to errors” (27%) and “general perceptions about patient safety” (35%), demonstrating that there still is a culture of fear of causing harm and the need for educational actions on patient safety. In general, all professionals have close contact with patients, regardless of the length on duty; however, the weekly workload and turnover in this sector is leading to a greater chance of errors. The analysis of the internal reliability of the dimensions ranged from 0.12 to 0.89. Only one-third of the respondents scored PSC as “Good” in the studied institutions and 63 out 69 professionals did not report any adverse events in the last 12 months. There are weaknesses in the observed perception of PSC and the obtained results show opportunities and challenges for improvements in the study system.