Patient safety and nursing implication: Survey in Catalan hospitals

This study aims to describe the implementation of the patient safety (PS) programs in catalan hospitals and to analyze the level of nursing involvement.

Multicenter cross-sectional study. To obtain the data two questionnaires were developed; one addressed to the hospital direction and another to the nurse executive in PS. The survey was distributed during 2013 to the 65 acute care hospitals in Catalonia.

The questionnaire was answered by 43 nursing directors and 40 nurse executive in PS. 93% of the hospitals responded that they had a PS Program and 81.4% used a specific scoreboard with PS indicators. The referent of the hospital in PS was a nurse in 55.8% of the centres. 92.5% had a system of notification of adverse effects with an annual average of 190.3 notifications. In 86% of the centres had a nurse involved in the PS program but only in the 16% of the centres the nurse dedication was at full-time. The nurse respondents evaluate the degree of implementation of the PBS program with a note of approved and they propound as improvement increase the staff dedicated to the PS and specific academic training in PS.

The degree of implementation of programs for patient safety is high in Catalan acute hospitals, while the organizational structure is highly diverse. In more than half of the hospitals the PS referent was a nurse, confirming the nurse involvement in the PS programs.