Swedish Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture— Psychometric properties and health care staff’s perception

Abstract

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Swedish and the original version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture within a Swedish hospital setting and described health care staff’s perceptions of patient safety culture. A web-survey was used to obtain data from registered nurses, enrolled nurses and physicians (N = 1023). Psychometric properties were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Root mean square error of approximation and other fit indices indicated psychoFmetric properties for both versions to be acceptable. Internal consistency for the dimensions varied between 0.60 and 0.87. Staff scored the dimension “Teamwork Within Units” highest and the dimension “Hospital Management Support” the lowest. The safety was graded as very good or excellent by 58.9% of the respondents and one third had reported more than one event in the past 12 months. The questionnaire is considered to be useful for measuring patient safety culture in Swedish hospital settings. Managers have a great responsibility to work with improving patient safety culture.