Evaluating Patient Safety Culture at the Northern Regional Hospital in Belize

Background: In the US, about 400,000 patients die yearly because of medical error or preventable harm procedures. There exists a myriad of contributing factors to adverse events including issues in communication, complexity of processes, and lack of consensus. To improve healthcare organizations’ patient safety, it is imperative to have safety environment awareness throughout the organization. The actions and thoughts of all the members in an organization forms the safety culture. To further investigate the perception of ambulatory care safety culture in the US, this study examines the differences in the views among physicians, management, and staff in the ambulatory setting.
Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the patient safety culture at the Northern Regional Hospital of Belize. This evaluation will be conducted through the lens of healthcare workers, who play a crucial role in delivering care and ensuring patient safety. The study seeks to capture their experiences, perceptions, and suggestions for promoting a safer environment for patients.
Methods: The Hospital Survey 2.0 on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPC) from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality was used to assess perceptions about patient safety issues and event reporting. The study targeted the Northern Regional Hospital of Belize with a staff population of 140 people. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the demographic data and scores obtained from the patient safety culture dimensions. Multiple regression analysis was used to understand the relationship between nine safety composite measure and three outcome variables.
Results: With a response rate of 64%, the overall positive response to patient safety was 49% compared to 70% by benchmark data. This shows that the hospital staff at the NRH have a low perception of patient safety at their hospital. Strengths included teamwork (65%) and supervisor, management or clinical leader support(65%) for patient safety. Areas to improve include staffing (37%), hospital management support (37%), and reporting patient safety events (37%). There were also significant correlations between communication about error and management support with patient safety rating. Similarly, Supervisor & Management support showed a positive impact on reporting patient safety events.
Conclusion: Patient Safety Culture is a multifaceted discipline that is very important to healthcare institutions to prevent adverse events or preventable harm when delivering healthcare. In this study several key elements that play a vital role in improving patient safety were highlighted. Generally, the findings of this research at the Northern Regional Hospital revealed that the positive score for patient safety at the hospital was relatively lower than the AHRQ 2022 benchmark data. Strengths that the hospital showed were teamwork, leader support, and organizational learning. The results of this research are valuable to the hospital and other alike in planning, developing, and implementing a program of patient safety to evaluate and assess future research about patient safety. It is anticipated that this research will be used in a positive way for the improvement of the healthcare system in the hospital and Belize alike.