Assessment and Comparison of Patient Safety Culture Among Health-Care Providers in Shenzhen Hospitals

Horng-Shuh Hao,1,* Han Gao,1,* Ting Li,2 Dan Zhang1 1Institute for Hospital Management, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 2Administrative Office, The Third People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Dan ZhangInstitute for Hospital Management, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, No. 2279 Lishui Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-186-64555188Fax +86-755-26036425Email zhang.dan@sz.tsinghua.edu.cnPurpose: To investigate the health-care providers’ perceptions of patient safety culture in Shenzhen hospitals and to compare 2019 with 2015 data.Methods: This cross-sectional study adopted a questionnaire survey and targeted hospital staff fitting the sampling criteria (physicians, nurses, technicians, and managers). A total of 5490 staff from 13 Shenzhen hospitals were surveyed using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC).Results: The average positive response rates of this study were generally higher than the data from the 2018 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) survey and the 2015 HSOPSC Shenzhen survey. Bivariate and multivariate regression showed that respondents who had direct contact with patients were less likely to report high overall patient safety grade. The probability of high overall patient safety grade was rated higher by men than by women. Compared with nurses, the probability of high overall patient safety grade was higher for both physicians and technicians.Conclusion: The overall results of the patient safety culture in Shenzhen hospitals were relatively good and have improved significantly in recent years, but some areas of weakness still need improvement. Our recommendations are to develop training programs for various positions, recruit more employees, provide management support, and establish a just culture to promote a strong patient safety culture. Regular assessment is also needed to provide valuable information to hospital leaders on areas requiring improvement and to evaluate the quality improvement plan that has been implemented.Keywords: patient safety culture, HSOPSC, public hospital