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Introduction: Patient safety and quality in healthcare are inseparable. Examining patient safety culture in staff members contributes to further develop quality in healthcare. In Italy there has been some experience in assessing patient safety culture in staff working in hospital. In this pilot study we explored patient safety culture in public health staff working in Italian Local Health Authorities., Methods: We carried out a descriptive cross sectional study in four Italian territorial Prevention facilities in Northern Italy. We administrated an adapted Italian version of the US Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture to all the staff within these facilities. The survey consisted of 10 dimensions based on 33 items, according to the results of a previous psychometric validation., Results: Seventy per cent of the staff responded to the survey (N = 479). Overall, six out of the 10 dimensions exhibited composite scores of positive response frequency for patient safety culture below 50%. While "communication openness" (65%) was the most developed factor, "teamwork across Units" (37%) was the least developed. The work areas with the highest composite scores were Management and the Public Health Laboratory, while in terms of professional categories, Physicians had the highest scores. Patient safety culture in the staff participating in this study was lower than in hospital staff., Discussion: Our descriptive cross sectional study is the first to be carried out in Preventive medicine settings in Italy. It has clearly indicated the need of improvement. Consequently, several interventions with this aim have been implemented.

Objective: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) was designed to assess staff views on patient safety culture in hospital. This study examines psychometrics of the Italian translation of the HSOPS for use in territorial prevention facilities., Design: After minimal adjustments and pre-test of the Italian version, a qualitative cross-sectional study was carried out., Setting: Departments of Prevention (DPs) of four Local Health Authorities in Northern Italy., Participants: Census of medical and non-medical staff (n. 479)., Intervention: Web-based self-administered questionnaire., Main Outcome Measures: Descriptive statistics, internal reliability, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and intercorrelations among survey composites., Results: Initial CFA of the 12 patient safety culture composites and 42 items included in the original version of the questionnaire revealed that two dimensions (Staffing and Overall Perception of Patient Safety) and nine individual items did not perform well among Italian territorial Prevention staff. After dropping those composites and items, psychometric properties were acceptable (comparative fit index = 0.94; root mean square error of approximation = 0.04; standardized root mean square residual = 0.04). Internal consistency for each remaining composite met or exceeded the criterion 0.70. Intercorrelations were all statistically significant., Conclusions: Psychometric analyses provided overall support for 10 of the 12 initial patient safety culture composites and 33 of the 42 initial composite items. Although the original instrument was intended for US Hospitals, the Italian translation of the HSOPS adapted for use in territorial prevention facilities performed adequately in Italian DPs., (© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com)