Impact of Individual and Team Features of Patient Safety Climate: A Survey in Family Practices

Abstract Purpose Knowledge about safety climate is fundamental to improving patient safety in health care organizations. Because individual and organizational factors influence the safety climate, we conducted a health care survey of German family practices so we could analyze the impact of the prof...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Annals of family medicine Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 355 - 362
Main Authors:	Hoffmann, Barbara, MD, MPH, Miessner, Carolin, MPH, Albay, Zeycan, Schröber, Jakob, Weppler, Katrin, Gerlach, Ferdinand M., MD, MPH, Güthlin, Corina, PhD
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States American Academy of Family Physicians 01-07-2013
Subjects:	Attitude of Health Personnel Family Practice - organization & administration Female Germany Humans Internal Medicine Interprofessional Relations Male Organizational Innovation Original Research Patient Care Team - organization & administration Patient Safety - statistics & numerical data Primary Health Care - organization & administration Quality of Health Care Safety Management - organization & administration Germany health care survey primary health care family practice patient safety safety climate
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Summary:	Abstract Purpose Knowledge about safety climate is fundamental to improving patient safety in health care organizations. Because individual and organizational factors influence the safety climate, we conducted a health care survey of German family practices so we could analyze the impact of the professional group, the professional experience of practice staff, and practice characteristics on perceptions of the safety climate. Methods We wrote to health care assistants and doctors in 1,800 randomly selected family practices in Germany and asked them to complete a newly developed and validated Frankfurt Patient Safety Climate Questionnaire. We conducted a descriptive analyses of items and climate factors, as well as regression analysis, to identify potential predictors of the safety climate in family practice. Results The response rate from the participating practices was 36.1%. Safety climate was perceived to be generally positive with the exception of the factors of error management and perception of the causes of errors. We discovered that whether or not the entire team had taken part in the survey had a positive influence on most factors. Doctors had more positive perceptions of 4 of 7 factors addressed to both professions. Male participants and doctors showed the most willingness to admit they had made an error. Conclusions Though the safety climate in German family practices was positive overall, health care professionals' use of incident reporting and a system's approach to errors was fairly rare. When evaluating the safety climate in primary health care practices, respondents' individual characteristics, as well as organizational features, should be taken into account.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1544-1709 1544-1717
DOI:	10.1370/afm.1500