The Role of Patient Safety Climate on Quality Management System: Perceptions of Nurses

摘要

As health care organizations continually strive to improve, patient safety has become critical component of health care quality. Also, there is a growing recognition of the importance of establishing a culture of safety. In health care, ISO certification is identified as an important factor in implementing continuous quality improvement and total quality management and in promoting integration in health care systems. Certification and accreditation has also been identified as an important factor in promoting patient safety and error reduction in health care organizations. The pressing need to increase the reliability of health care systems to reduce frequency of adverse events--both negligent and other types--has placed a renewed focus on the role of accreditation in promoting patient safety. Since total quality management philosophy focuses particularly on customers, patient safety culture within a hospital becomes a salient issue. Because of the fact that patient safety culture enhances the care system as a whole, the aim of this study is to analyze the role of patient safety climate on total quality management system through the perceptions of nurses, working as key performers in healthcare. The survey has been carried out in 4 certified hospitals in Izmir. The study indicates that patient safety dimensions has strong affect on total quality management system, and dimension of communication has been the most effective one on the process.