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Culture of Blame-An Ongoing Burden for Doctors and Patient Safety

Ognjen Brborović1, Hana Brborović2, Iskra Alexandra Nola2

  • 1University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care, Zagreb 10 000, Croatia.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
|December 7, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Healthcare workers fear punishment, leading to underreporting of adverse events. A culture of blame hinders learning from errors and improving patient safety.

Area of Science:

  • Healthcare Management
  • Patient Safety
  • Occupational Health

Background:

  • Healthcare adverse events (HAEs) are common due to practice issues.
  • Reporting HAEs is crucial for learning and prevention, not for assigning blame.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prevalence of a blame culture among healthcare workers.
  • To assess the impact of a blame culture on health workers' well-being.

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional study was conducted.
  • The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSC) was administered to healthcare workers in two Croatian hospitals.

Main Results:

  • Most PSC dimensions were rated highly, except for Nonpunitive Response to Error and Staffing.
  • Low scores in Nonpunitive Response to Error indicate a persistent culture of blame.
  • Low Staffing scores suggest a shortage of doctors and nurses.

Conclusions:

  • A culture of blame discourages healthcare workers from reporting HAEs due to fear of punitive action.
  • Discrepancies were observed between single-item measures and PSC dimensions regarding event reporting.
  • Addressing the culture of blame is essential for enhancing patient safety and encouraging HAE reporting.

Keywords:
healthcare adverse eventshealthcare workerspatient safety culture

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