Date and Time
April 9, 2003
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Sara J. Singer - Academic Staff

We explored safety climate in 12 California hospitals over a two year period, studying fundamental attitudes toward and experiences of patient safety, ways in which attitudes and experiences vary by hospital, job class, clinical status, and over time. We surveyed a sample of all hospital employees in 2001 and 2002 with the Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations instrument. Using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression models, we examined problematic and neutral responses, change in response for each question overall, by hospital, job class, and clinician status. Problematic response decreased slightly in 2002 compared to 2001, but remained high at more than 18% on average overall. In both years, senior managers and non-clinicians more often provided problematic responses than non-senior managers and clinicians, respectively. Our results suggest need for further work to address safety culture in these organizations.