An Assessment of Patient Safety Culture in Belize’s Public Hospitals

Globally, patient safety is a major determinant of quality of care and is therefore one of priorities of any healthcare institution. It is not until 1999 after a report published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have the problem of patient safety been emphasized and since then its release continue. The report stated that at least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented, according to estimates from two major studies (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000b). The dramatic worldwide increase in medical error and death due to unsafe care poses a great problem in both developed and developing countries. In order to improve patient safety, an assessment of patient safety culture is recommended. However, to date, there is a dearth of studies-derived data on patient safety culture in Belize, therefore to the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study carried out in this vital but unexplored issue, this the motivation for this research.