[Safety culture in Tunisian primary health care: A multicenter study]

To assess safety culture in primary healthcare centres and to explore its associated factors.

This multicentre cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in the 30 primary healthcare centres in central Tunisia and used the validated French version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire' (HSOPSC).

A total of 214 professionals participated, corresponding to a response rate of 85%. The ?Teamwork within centres? dimension had the highest score (71.5%). However, two safety dimensions had very low scores: ?Frequency of event reporting?, ?Non-punitive response to errors? with percentages of 31.4% and 35.4%, respectively. Among the associated factors, the ?Frequency of reported events? dimension was significantly higher among professionals involved in risk management committees (p = 0.01).

This study demonstrates that the level of safety culture needs to be improved in primary healthcare centres in Tunisia and also highlights the need to implement a quality management system in primary healthcare centres.