[Measuring patient safety awareness among physicians in a Tunisian hospital]

The objective of this study was to measure the level of awareness of patient safety among physicians at Farhat Hached hospital in Sousse (Tunisia).

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2012 using a validated survey based on pervious studies. This self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 116 physicians working in 16 different departments of Farhat Hached university hospital. This survey explores 10 dimensions of patient safety and each of these dimensions is composed of several items. The percentage of positive (positive attitudes) and negative responses for each item was calculated and a score was calculated for each dimension, corresponding to the mean percentages of positive answers to the respective items of the dimension.

The response rate was 74.1%. The overall positive response rate of patient safety awareness ranged from 13.9% to 84%. The dimensions with the lowest positive response rates were "Hospital management support for patient safety" (13.9%) and "Teamwork within units" (45.4%). The highest percentage of positive responses was observed for "Supervisor expectations and safety-promoting actions" (82.3%) and "Frequency of event reporting" (84%).

This study measured the level of awareness of patient safety among physicians at Farhat Hached university hospital. The results obtained will be used to guide safety-promoting actions.