A comparative study of patient safety in the intensive care units

AIM: This study aimed to assess patient‐safety principles in ICUs. DESIGN: This is a descriptive‐comparative study. METHODS: The research environment includes ICUs of hospitals affiliated to the two universities of medical sciences in Tehran. Sampling was done by census using Time and Event Sampling methods. Research instrument was “Patient Safety Principles Checklist”. Data analysis was performed using SPSS‐20 and descriptive‐inferential statistics with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: There is no significant difference (p‐value = .15) in the level of observance of patient‐safety principles in two university‐affiliated hospitals A (133.26 ± 9.14) and B (128.16 ± 18.01). Evaluation of the mean scores obtained in each dimension and in each of the ICUs was showed that only in dimension No.3 the difference was significant (F[68,2] = 5.20, p‐value = .008) and in the AICUs (16.13 ± 1.8) (p‐value = .04), it was significantly lower than other ICUs. Identifying risk factors for the patient’s immunity reduces the side effects of patient care.