Measuring patient safety culture in pediatric long-term care

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety
• Pediatric Care

Background:

• Pediatric long-term care (pLTC) settings require tailored patient safety assessments.
• Existing safety culture surveys may not fully capture the nuances of pLTC environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability, feasibility, and utility of a modified patient safety survey for pLTC.
• To describe the patient safety culture among providers in pLTC facilities.

Main Methods:

• Adapted the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSC-pLTC).
• Administered the survey to a convenience sample of pLTC providers during an educational workshop.
• Collected responses from 49 providers across 32 facilities in all four U.S. census regions.

Main Results:

• The adapted survey demonstrated excellent face validity, usability, feasibility, and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94).
• Highest ratings were observed for overall safety perceptions, feedback/incident communication, supervisor actions, and management support.
• Lowest ratings pertained to teamwork, communication, handoffs, staffing, and organizational learning, with variations based on population and geographic region.

Conclusions:

• The adapted survey is a reliable and valid tool for measuring patient safety culture in pLTC.
• Providers expressed strong interest in utilizing such a measure to enhance safety practices.
• Identified areas for targeted interventions to improve patient safety in pLTC settings.