[Patient safety culture in directors and managers of a health service].

OBJECTIVE

To assess patient safety culture in directors/managers.

METHODS

Cross-sectional descriptive study carried out from February to June 2011 among the executive/managing staff of the Aragón Health Service through semi-structured interviews.

RESULTS

A total of 12 interviews were carried out. All the respondents admitted that there were many patient safety problems and agreed that patient safety was a priority from a theoretical rather than practical perspective. The excessive changes in executive positions was considered to be an important barrier which made it difficult to establish long-term strategies and achieve medium-term continuity.

CONCLUSIONS

This study recorded perceptions on patient safety culture in directors, an essential factor to improve patient safety culture in this group and in the organisations they run.