Patient Safety Culture

The purpose of this post is to share three organizational culture resources that address organizational culture and patient safety proactively. My three references of choice are Measuring Safety Culture in Healthcare: A Case for Accurate Diagnosis by Flin, Organizational Readiness Assessment Checklist by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Patient Safety Climate in 92 US Hospitals: Differences by Work Area and Discipline by Singer et al articles.

In order for organizational culture and patient safety to be effective, an evidence-based teamwork system focused on improving patient outcomes need to be in place (AHRQ, 2013). The TeamSTEPPS national model stood out for me in that it’s a national model designed to help healthcare professionals improve

patient safety within their organizations. The TeamSTEPPS model focus on improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals by providing trainings and supplemental materials integrated in healthcare teamwork principles.
Organizational culture and patient safety are quintessential to any health care or medical organization risk management infrastructure.

Effective healthcare organizations often look at safety culture in areas of systems, environments, knowledge, workflow, tools and other stressors affecting behaviors (Carroll, 2009). Incorporating and utilizing benchmarks (or measurements) are proactive tools to institute proactively to forecast and develop solutions for potential situations and circumstances. The Measuring Safety Culture in Healthcare: A case for Accurate Diagnosis by Flin is a resource that stood out to me as well. The Measuring Safety Culture in Healthcare article addressed concerns regarding safety of patients in the U.S. healthcare systems. The article was written to bring forth concerns in safety management techniques that are adopted in the health care industries. The article stated how the use of safety climate questionnaires surveying workforce perceptions and attitudes towards worker and patient safety in healthcare organizations were important. The article found that many psychometric standards were not in place to address healthcare safety climate measures prior to this

revelation.
The Patient Safety Climate in 92 US Hospitals: Differences by Work Area and Discipline stood out the most for me. The purpose of the article was to address concerns about patient safety and implement procedures to improve safety climate. Results from a random survey revealed 17% of responses were inconsistent with a safety climate. Patient safety climate differed by hospital. This difference was reflected in work areas and disciplines. Results from the survey indicated emergency department personnel perception of safety climate was worse. Nonclinical personnel perceived safety climate better than other areas; and nurse’s safety climate perception was more negative than physicians just to name a few. Outcome from the survey suggests strategies for improving safety climate and patient safety need to be in place and customized to fit individual healthcare organization’s needs.
The readings did increase my belief that organizational culture exist and justifiably so. The need for organizational culture and patient safety is very important in meeting the needs of the healthcare organization. The readings helped to convey this by focusing on specifics related to improving or enhancing organizational culture and patient safety.
I do believe the additional readings along with what we have done this semester increased my beliefs pertaining to organizational culture and how it can be manipulated to impact outcomes. The goal to adhere to organizational belief, values, mission etc. and manipulation can occur in developing surveys, designing questionnaires or incorporating trainings to address specific needs.
The study of organizational culture and patient safety culture has added to my view of how I plan on managing my areas in the future. For example, following with fidelity organizational goals, values and beliefs are important for me to be successful; and ensuring staff I plan on managing will do the same.