Developing patient safety scale for hospitals

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Safety Research
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Assessing patient safety culture is crucial for improving healthcare quality.
• Existing measurement tools may lack reliability or validity for specific hospital contexts.
• A need exists for a robust instrument to evaluate and monitor patient safety culture in hospitals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a comprehensive scale for measuring patient safety culture in hospitals.
• To provide a reliable tool for healthcare institutions to assess their current patient safety status.
• To enable ongoing monitoring of improvements in patient safety culture over time.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 1137 healthcare professionals from state and university-affiliated hospitals.
• Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were employed to determine scale structure.
• Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis confirmed suitability with Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) = 0.924 and Bartlett's test.
• The scale demonstrated high overall reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.921).
• EFA identified seven subscales: Organizational Learning, Management Support, Reporting Events, Staffing, Error Response, Teamwork, and Working Environment. Model fit indices indicated good structural validity.

Conclusions:

• The developed Patient Safety Scale for Hospitals is a valid and reliable instrument.
• This scale can be effectively utilized by healthcare professionals to assess patient safety culture.
• The findings support the scale's utility for evaluating and improving patient safety in hospital settings.