Survey of Cancer Patient Safety Culture: A Comparison of Chemotherapy and Oncology Departments of Teaching Hospitals of Tehran

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Background: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Patient safety culture plays an important role in healthcare systems, especially in chemotherapy and oncology departments (CODs), and its assessment can help to improve quality of services and hospital care. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Objective: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">This study aimed to evaluate and compare items and dimensions of patient safety culture in the CODs of selected teaching hospitals of Iran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Materials and Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional survey was conducted during a six-month period on 270 people from chemotherapy and oncology departments selected through a cluster sampling method. All participants answered the standard questionnaire for "Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture" (HSOPSC). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS/18 software. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The average </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">score for patient safety culture was three for the majority of the studied CODs. Statistically significant differences were </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">observed for supervisor actions, teamwork within various units, feedback and communications about errors, and the level of hospital management support. (p<0.05). Relationships between studied hospitals and patient safety culture were not </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">statistically significant (p>0.05). </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusion: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Our results showed that the overall status of patient safety culture is not good in the studied CODs. In particular, teamwork across different units and organizational learning with continuous improvement were the only two properly operating items among 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. Therefore, systematic interventions are strongly required to promote communication. </span></span>