Citation

Gaba DM, Singer SJ, Sinaiko AD, Bowen JD, Ciavarelli AP. Hum. Factors 2003; 45(2): 173-185.

Affiliation

Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA. gaba@stanford.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14529192

Abstract

We compared results of safety climate survey

questions from health care respondents with those from naval aviation, a

high-reliability organization. Separate surveys containing a subset of 23

similar questions were conducted among employees from 15 hospitals and from

naval aviators from 226 squadrons. For each question a "problematic

response" was defined that suggested an absence of a safety climate.

Overall, the problematic response rate was 5.6% for naval aviators versus 17.5%

for hospital personnel (p < .0001). The problematic response was 20.9% in

high-hazard hospital domains such as emergency departments and operating rooms.

Problematic response among hospital workers was up to 12 times greater than that

among aviators on certain questions. Although further research on safety climate

in health care is warranted, hospitals may need to make substantial changes to

achieve a safety climate consistent with the status of high-reliability

organizations.