Theses (Master Of Pharmacy Practice)

Assessment of patient safety culture among healthcare providers in tertiary hospitals – a multicentre study Introduction: Patient safety culture is the combination of attitudes and behaviours toward patient safety that are addressed when a patient walks into a healthcare institution. The objectives of the present study were to identify the current level of patient safety culture and to evaluate and correlate the healthcare providers’ (HCPs) knowledge, attitude, and perception of patient safety culture in tertiary hospital settings. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among the HCPs of private tertiary hospitals, which were Sunway Medical Centre (Sunway City) and Gleneagles Hospital Medini Johor. A structured validated questionnaire which includes Hospital Survey On Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) was used to analyse the level of patient safety culture. Results: A total of 550 HCPs were approached and only 158 of them responded to this online survey and the response rate was 28%. The overall patient safety grade was rated as very good or excellent by 110 (69%) respondents. The study revealed communication about the error (PRR=80), and organizational learning and continuous improvement (PRR=74) were good in the study settings, whereas staffing and work pace (PRR=28), and response to errors (PRR=40) require improvement in terms of patient safety culture. Conclusion: HCPs in the study settings had favourable attitudes towards the culture of patient safety in their organization. Inadequate staffing, work pace, and lack of response to mistakes were commonly seen that may increase the chances of errors, which pose health threats to the patients and needs to be addressed immediately. Every healthcare organization should address the issue of safety culture holistically. Keywords: Patient safety, hospital survey, error reporting, private hospital, healthcare.