Alsaleh Fatemah Mohammad, Abahussain Eman Ali, Altabaa Hamed Hamdi, Al-Bazzaz Mohammed Faisal, Almandil Noor Barak
Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 24923, 13110, Safat, Kuwait.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations (IRMC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2018 Nov 22;18(1):884. doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3662-0.
Medication errors have been the largest component of medical errors threatening patient safety worldwide. Several international health bodies advocate measuring safety culture within healthcare organizations as an effective strategy for sustainable safety improvement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study conducted in a Middle Eastern country at the level of community pharmacy, to examine safety culture and to evaluate the extent to which patient safety is a strategic priority.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSOPSC), developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was used to collect data. PSOPSC is a self-administered questionnaire which was previously tested for validity and reliability. The questionnaire was distributed among pharmacists who work in community pharmacies from the five governorates of Kuwait (Capital, Hawalli, Farwaniya, Jahra, and Ahmadi). The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software, version 24 was used for analysing data.
A total of 255 community pharmacists from the five governorates were approached to participate in the study, of whom 253 returned a completed questionnaire, with the response rate of 99%. Results from the study showed that patient safety is a strategic priority in many aspects of patient safety standards at the level of community pharmacies. This was reflected by the high positive response rate (PRR) measures demonstrated in the domains of "Teamwork" (96.8%), "Organizational Learning-Continuous Improvement" (93.2%) and "Patient Counselling" (90.9%). On the other hand, the lowest PRR was given to the "Staffing, Work Pressure, and Pace" domain which scored 49.7%.
Understanding community pharmacists' perspectives of patient safety culture within their organization is critical. It can help identify areas of strength and those that require improvement, which can help support decision about actions to improve patient safety. The current study showed that urgent attention should be given to the areas of weakness, mainly in the dimension of "Staffing, Work Pressure and Pace." The pharmacists pointed the need for adequate breaks between shifts and less distractible work environment to perform their jobs accurately.
用药错误一直是全球范围内威胁患者安全的医疗差错的最大组成部分。几个国际卫生机构主张衡量医疗机构内部的安全文化，将其作为实现可持续安全改进的有效策略。据我们所知，这是在中东国家社区药房层面开展的第一项研究，旨在审视安全文化并评估患者安全在多大程度上是一项战略重点。
开展了一项描述性横断面研究。采用了美国医疗保健研究与质量局（AHRQ）开发的《患者安全文化药房调查问卷》（PSOPSC）来收集数据。PSOPSC是一份自填式问卷，此前已进行过效度和信度测试。该问卷分发给在科威特五个省（首都省、哈瓦利省、法瓦尼亚省、贾赫拉省和艾哈迈迪省）社区药房工作的药剂师。使用社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）24版进行数据分析。
共邀请了来自五个省的255名社区药剂师参与研究，其中253人返回了完整问卷，回复率为99%。研究结果表明，在社区药房层面，患者安全在患者安全标准的许多方面都是一项战略重点。这体现在“团队合作”（96.8%）、“组织学习 - 持续改进”（93.2%）和“患者咨询”（90.9%）领域呈现出的高积极回复率（PRR）指标上。另一方面，“人员配备、工作压力和节奏”领域的PRR最低，为49.7%。
了解社区药剂师对其所在机构内患者安全文化的看法至关重要。这有助于确定优势领域和需要改进的领域，从而有助于支持有关改善患者安全行动的决策。当前研究表明，应紧急关注薄弱领域，主要是在“人员配备、工作压力和节奏”方面。药剂师指出需要在轮班之间有足够的休息时间以及工作环境干扰更少，以便准确履行职责。
