Culture of blame—an ongoing burden for doctors and patient safety

Brborović, Ognjen and Brborović, Hana and Nola, Iskra Alexandra and Milošević, Milan (2019) Culture of blame—an ongoing burden for doctors and patient safety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16 (23). p. 4826. ISSN 1660-4601

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16234826

Abstract

Introduction: Every procedure in healthcare carries a certain degree of inherent unsafety resulting from problems in practice, which might lead to a healthcare adverse event (HAE). It is very important, and even mandatory, to report HAE. The point of HAE reporting is not to blame the person, but to learn from the HAE in order to prevent future HAEs. ----- Study question: Our aim was to examine the prevalence and the impact of culture of blame on health workers' health. ----- Methods: A cross-sectional study on healthcare workers at two Croatian hospitals was conducted using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSC). ----- Results: The majority of PSC dimensions in both hospitals were high. Among the dimensions, Hospital Handoffs and Transitions and Overall Perceptions of Safety had the highest values. The Nonpunitive Response to Error dimension had low values, indicating the ongoing culture of blame. The Staffing dimension had low values, indicating the ongoing shortage of doctors and nurses. -----Discussion: We found inconsistencies between a single-item measure and PSC dimensions. It was expected that Frequency of Events Reported (PSC dimension) relates to Number of Events Reported (single-item measure). However, in our study, the relations between these pairs of measures were different between hospitals. Our results indicate the ongoing culture of blame. Healthcare workers do not report HAE because they fear they will be punished by management or by law.

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

MeSH:

Adult ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Croatia ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Health Personnel / statistics & numerical data ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Male ; Organizational Culture ; Patient Safety ; Physicians ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Departments:

Katedra za socijalnu medicinu i organizaciju zdravstvene zaštite
Katedra za zdravstvenu ekologiju i medicinu rada

Depositing User:

Kristina Berketa

Status:

Published

Creators: