ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the findings and experiences from a nationwide baseline and follow-up safety culture measurement within Belgian hospitals and discusses opportunities for benchmarking results. Belgium has seven university hospitals, one for each medical school that offers an entire medical education. In order to measure safety culture in Belgian hospitals, the survey needed to be made ready for use within different types of settings, taking into account multiple language contexts. The main objectives of the nationwide safety culture measurement were to raise awareness and to measure the perceptions of healthcare staff on different patient safety aspects. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) was selected for measuring safety culture in Belgian hospitals because it covers a broad range of patient safety aspects and previous research had demonstrated that the psychometric properties of the HSOPS are good.
