Date and Time
February 14, 2007
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

The presence of a hospital culture that emphasizes patient safety is increasingly recognized as a key to improving patient safety. While it is widely assumed that stronger safety culture in hospitals will be associated with better outcomes, there is little quantitative evidence available about whether there is in fact such a relationship. This project examined the association between measures of hospital safety culture and hospital performance on indicators of patient safety. We performed a hospital-level cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between safety culture and patient safety measures.

This is the first study to empirically examine the link between safety culture and safety performance in a sample of moderate size. The results suggest that there are quantitatively important relationships, and that the strength of the relationship can vary from one group of personnel to another, and from one aspect of safety culture to another.