Safety Climate in Health Care Organizations: A Multidimensional Approach

TLDR

Treatment errors are a major problem in the health care industry. This study explored four dimensions of safety climate and the interactions among them as predictors of treatment errors. A total of 632 participants in 46 hospital units assessed their units' safety climate. Results showed a curvilinear relationship between perceived detail of safety procedures and treatment errors, and that perceived priority of safety moderated this relationship and also moderated the link between employees’ interpretation of managers’ safety practices and treatment errors.

Abstract

Treatment errors are a major problem in the health care industry. This study explored four dimensions of safety climate and the interactions among them as predictors of treatment errors. A total of 632 participants in 46 hospital units assessed their units' safety climate. Results demonstrated a curvilinear relationship between the levels of the perceived detailing of safety procedures and the number of treatment errors. Also, the perceived priority of safety moderated the curvilinear relationship between safety procedures and treatment errors as well as the relationship between the way employees interpreted their managers' safety practices and treatment errors.