| Project Name: |
Organizational Safety Culture |
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| Other Team Members: |
Norton, Kline, Flin, Davies, Flemons, White, Mather |
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The organizational safety culture
The literature supports the
contention that a climate of safety in an organization cannot rest solely on
descriptions of patient characteristics. There are staff-level, unit-level, and
system-level variables that also play important roles in creating a climate of
safety. To fully embrace a climate of safety, variables at all levels need to be
effectively modelled to leverage those most likely to have an impact on the
outcomes of patient safety and well-being (safety incidents, quality of care,
wait times, resource intensity).
The purposes of this research
will be to: 1) Identify the variables that have an effect on the individual
patient-, staff-, unit- and system-level climate of safety; 2) Secure data on
these variables from archival sources; 3) Mathematically model patient safety
and well-being using multi-level modeling analysis, and 4) Make recommendations
as to which of the variables identified can and should be addressed.
The planned research into the
organizational safety culture will involve several W21C faculty (Norton, Kline,
Flin, Davies, Flemons, White, Mather), engaged in primary data collection
targeting all types of health care providers through a combination of surveys
and qualitative interviews on ‘safety climate’ on W21C as well as in other
Calgary Health Region ward settings. This will be complemented by research that
will adopt a region-wide perspective (rather than just a W21C focus) using
existing archived data resources in the Calgary Health Region that permit
characterization of information on patient-level, staff-level, unit-level, and
system-level factors that can contribute to safety and quality of care. Early
phases of this research will be observational in nature, and will use a combination of existing data and newly-collected data,
as mentioned above. Subsequent phases of work will then transition toward the
development of interventions that will target one of more system levels in
attempts to effect positive organizational change. Those complex interventions
will be accompanied by evaluative research assessing their potential impact in
multiple dimensions.
This program of work into the organizational safety culture is a
key strategic priority of the Calgary Health Region’s Patient Safety portfolio,
and the research team is already interacting in a knowledge exchange capacity
with decision-makers in the safety area to optimize the policy relevance and
strategic alignment of this program of work. The team’s expertise bridges the
disciplines of psychology, medicine, nursing, and anthropology. |
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