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Purpose: While pharmacists are key in ensuring the safe use of medications, the culture of safety within the Pharmacy department is not well described in the literature. We sought to assess the departmental safety culture and determine if an intervention that addressed an identified safety concern could improve the overall safety culture.
Methods: An initial departmental safety culture assessment using the validated Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture survey was conducted. The findings of the survey were then used to establish the intervention: Safety Rounds an open communication forum to discuss medication incidents. These rounds were held twice monthly for four months, followed one month later by a repeat survey.
Results: A total of 71% of eligible pharmacists completed the baseline survey. The overall safety culture was 46% positive and the dimensions of concern were: communication openness, feedback and communication about error and hospital handoffs and transitions. The post intervention survey was completed by 50% of eligible pharmacists. The overall safety culture did not change (43% positive) however there were substantial changes in the proportion of positive responses in several dimensions including: feedback and communication about errors (25 to 58%), communication openness (38 to 51%), organizational learning (56 to 71%), and teamwork within the unit (71 to 88%). Dimensions that demonstrated a decrease in the proportion of positive responses were: hospital management support (72 to 56%), handoffs and transitions (14% to 5%), and teamwork across hospital units (45 % to 34%).
Conclusion: The open communication forum, Safety Rounds, did not change the overall culture of safety but led to improvements in important dimensions and identified areas requiring further work.