Safety culture key to surgical results: Study
The study points to three characteristics of good safety culture that make a difference: an ability and willingness to learn from past mistakes; a high degree of interest in adopting best practices; and an ability to collaborate to benchmark performance.
The researchers measured 12 different safety culture factors that could influence rates of surgical site infection after colon surgery at seven Minnesota community hospitals and found that 10 of the 12 made a difference including overall perceptions of patient safety; teamwork across units; organizational learning; feedback and communication about error; management support for patient safety; supervisor expectations of actions promoting safety; and non-punitive response to error.
