Determinants of patient safety culture among healthcare providers in the Upper East Region of Ghana

ObjectiveTo find out the determinants of patient safety culture among healthcare providers in the Upper East Region of Ghana. DesignThis was a cross-sectional survey of three hospitals. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was adapted for data collection. SettingThe setting was three selected hospitals (mission, public, and private) from the Upper East Region of Ghana. ParticipantsA total of 393 healthcare providers were invited to participate, but 384 (98%) honored the invitation.Main outcome measure: The main outcome measure (dependent variable) was overall perception of patient safety culture. ResultsIt was found that only 7% of the respondents thought that overall patient safety culture was excellent, while close to 14% of the respondents thought that overall patient safety culture was poor. The significant predictors of overall patient safety culture were teamwork across units (beta = 126, p = .04), organizational learning (beta = .112, p = .05), and management support for patient safety (beta = .172, p = .00). ConclusionsGenerally, patient safety culture in the selected hospitals was below expectation. In the quest to promote a culture of safety, healthcare managers of the hospitals must invest resources in promoting teamwork, organizational learning, and management support among other factors.