ABSTRACT
The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety was used to identify opportunities for safety culture improvement in a 30-bed intensive care unit. Based on the survey results, a core team decided to focus on three safety domains: reporting errors, approachability of authority figures and handovers. The project team subsequently interviewed 39 intensive care unit staff members, gathering information on these three domains that will inform future safety efforts. Numerous barriers and facilitators to improvement were described. This mixed-methods approach could be applied in other hospitals seeking to quickly yet thoroughly understand how their safety culture can be improved. Developing local strategies to reduce these barriers may promote a safer patient experience at our hospital.
