Subscales of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture with definitions20
| Patient safety culture composite | No of items | Definition: the extent to which… |
| Seven dimensions of unit culture pertaining to patient safety: | ||
| 1. Communication openness | 3 | Staff speak up freely if they see something that may negatively affect a patient, and feel free to question those with more authority |
| 2. Feedback and communication about error | 3 | Staff are informed about errors that happen, given feedback about changes implemented, and discuss ways to prevent errors |
| 3. Organisational learning and continuous improvement | 3 | There is a learning culture in which mistakes lead to positive changes, and changes are evaluated for effectiveness |
| 4. Supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety | 4 | Supervisors/managers consider staff suggestions for improving patient safety, praise staff for following patient safety procedures and do not overlook patient safety problems |
| 5. Non-punitive response to error | 3 | Staff feel that their mistakes and incident reports are not held against them, and that mistakes are not kept in their personnel file |
| 6. Teamwork within units | 4 | Staff support one another, treat each other with respect and work together as a team |
| 7. Staffing | 4 | There are enough staff to handle the workload, and work hours are appropriate to provide the best care for patients |
| Three dimensions of hospital culture pertaining to patient safety: | ||
| 8. Management support for patient safety | 3 | Hospital management provides a work climate that promotes patient safety and shows that patient safety is a top priority |
| 9. Hospital handovers and transitions | 4 | Important patient care information is transferred across hospital units and during shift changes |
| 10. Teamwork across units | 4 | Hospital units cooperate and coordinate with one another to provide the best care for patients |
| Four overall patient safety outcomes: | ||
| 11. Overall perceptions of patient safety | 4 | Procedures and systems are good at preventing errors, and there is a lack of patient safety problems |
| 12. Frequency of incident reporting | 3 | Mistakes of the following types are reported: (1) mistakes caught and corrected before affecting the patient; (2) mistakes with no potential to harm the patient; and (3) mistakes that could harm the patient, but do not |
| 13. No of incidents reported | 1 | – |
| 14. Patient safety grade of unit | 1 | – |