Polish version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

Background.Assessments of patient safety culture at healthcare institutions such as hospitals usually include a survey of staff perceptions.There are several tools to measure subjective opinions of patient safety in hospitals.Objectives.This pilot study was designed to test the feasibility of adapting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) to the context of the Polish healthcare system. Material and methods.The study was conducted at a multi-site public hospital located in the Mazovian voivodeship of Poland, in a district (powiat) with a population of over 70,000.The hospital has a total capacity of 199 beds on 9 wards.A paper-based Polish translation of the HSOPSC (Ankieta Szpitalna Bezpieczeństwa Pacjenta -ASBP) was personally distributed among the nursing/midwifery staff between May 20 and June 5, 2015.Results.None of the 103 respondents commented in any way on the correctness of the form of the questions.Also, the response rate (RR) was high (88%).Among the respondents, 39.2% (n = 40) gave their work unit a global safety grade of "acceptable", while 54.9% (n = 56) graded it "very good".The majority of the respondents (80.1%; n = 81) had not reported any unsafe event in the previous 12 months.Cronbach's α scores ranged from 0.37 to 0.89.Only 4 dimensions received reliability scores above 0.70. Conclusions.The Polish-language version of the HSOPSC is less psychometrically sound than the original and many other European versions.This pilot study provided evidence that the logical and grammatical construction of the translated questions enable the Polish-language version of the HSOPSC to be used on a larger population of health workers in Poland in order to fully assess psychometric properties of this questionnaire.