Patient Safety Culture as Viewed by Medical and Diagnostic Staff of Selected Tehran Hospitals, Iran

Background: Today, patient safety is an important issue in providing hospital services. Any failure in this area can cause undesirable consequences. Objective:  The present study evaluated the status of patient safety culture in Educational Hospitals of Tehran, Iran. Methods: This crosssectional study surveyed 205 therapeutic and diagnostic personnel of three Tehran hospitals selected using the clustered method; samples were collected in a randomized manner. To examine patient safety culture, the standard questionnaire of patient safety culture with 12 dimensions was used. Data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results: In the 12 dimensions of patient safety culture, exchange of data, expectations, and organization management had the lowest means of 3.28 (±0.87), and 3.32 (±0.74) among the various aspects of patient safety culture. Additionally, the two dimensions of teamwork within the organization’s units and frequency of reporting events with means of 3.71 (±0.79) and 3.73 (±0.7) had the highest means among the studied 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. The total mean of patient safety culture in the studied hospitals was 3.5 (±0.5). Conclusion: Increasing the attention paid to patient safety culture will lead to the development and progress of hospitals in the country and will guide them toward becoming patientfriendly hospitals. Those dimensions which had low mean values in this study should be paid more attention so as to promote and protect them.