Survey of Cancer Patient Safety Culture: A Comparison of Chemotherapy and Oncology Departments of Teaching Hospitals of Tehran

BACKGROUND: Patient safety culture plays an important role in healthcare systems, especially in chemotherapy and oncology departments (CODs), and its assessment can help to improve quality of services and hospital care. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate and compare items and dimensions of patient safety culture in the CODs of selected teaching hospitals of Iran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional survey was conducted during a six-month period on 270 people from chemotherapy and oncology departments selected through a cluster sampling method. All participants answered the standard questionnaire for “Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture” (HSOPSC). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS/18 software. RESULTS: The average score for patient safety culture was three for the majority of the studied CODs. Statistically significant differences were observed for supervisor actions, teamwork within various units, feedback and communications about errors, and the level of hospital management support. (p<0.05). Relationships between studied hospitals and patient safety culture were not statistically significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that the overall status of patient safety culture is not good in the studied CODs. In particular, teamwork across different units and organizational learning with continuous improvement were the only two properly operating items among 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. Therefore, systematic interventions are strongly required to promote communication.