ABSTRACT
In health care, as in other safety-critical endeavors, the notion of “safety culture” has become a familiar reference. What, though, does this mean? And why does it matter? In this chapter, we will explain what safety culture is and review some of the different ways in which it has been formulated. We will then discuss how safety culture relates to the policies and practices of health care organizations, such as their engagement with harm disclosure and incident reporting. Finally, we will suggest methods for
Key Points .............................................................................................................. 137 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 137 Dening Safety Culture ......................................................................................... 138 Understanding Safety Culture ................................................................................ 138
Component Models ........................................................................................... 138 Developmental Models ..................................................................................... 140 Work Climate Models ....................................................................................... 140 System Models .................................................................................................. 142
Assessing Safety Culture ....................................................................................... 142 Manchester Patient Safety Assessment Framework .......................................... 142 Medication Safety Self-Assessment .................................................................. 144 Safety Attitudes Questionnaire .......................................................................... 145 Pharmacy Safety Climate Questionnaire .......................................................... 145
Improving Safety Culture ...................................................................................... 146 SafetyNET-Rx: Towards a Generative Safety Culture ........................................... 148 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 151
assessing and improving safety culture. In order to illustrate how such methods can be used in practice, we will consider a case study from community pharmacies.
