<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<sec id="j_sjph-2021-0021_s_006">
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>Patient safety is one of the key aspects of healthcare quality and a serious global public health concern. Patient safety culture is a part of the patient safety concept. In Slovenia, primary care is easily accessible, and for medical care, it serves as a gatekeeper to hospital care. For several years, the quality and safety at the primary healthcare level have been the focus of several studies. The present study aimed to assess patient safety culture among all employees of the Community Health Centre Ljubljana.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_sjph-2021-0021_s_007">
<h3>Methods</h3>
<p>We conducted a cross-sectional study in 2017 using the Slovene version of “Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture” from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Mean percent positive scores on all items in each composite were calculated according to a user guide.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_sjph-2021-0021_s_008">
<h3>Results</h3>
<p>The final sample contained 1021 participants (67.8% response rate), of which 909 (89.0%) were women. The mean age of the sample was 43.0±11.0 years. The dimensions most highly rated by the respondents were: teamwork and patient care tracking/follow-up. The lowest scores came from leadership support for patients’ safety and work pressure and pace.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_sjph-2021-0021_s_009">
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>Patient safety culture in the Community Health Centre Ljubljana is high, but there are certain areas of patient safety that need to be evaluated further and improved. Our study revealed differences between professions, indicating that a customized approach per profession group might contribute to the successful implementation of safety strategies. Patient safety culture should be studied at national levels.</p></sec>
</abstract>

Introduction
Patient safety is one of the key aspects of healthcare quality and a serious global public health concern. Patient safety culture is a part of the patient safety concept. In Slovenia, primary care is easily accessible, and for medical care, it serves as a gatekeeper to hospital care. For several years, the quality and safety at the primary healthcare level have been the focus of several studies. The present study aimed to assess patient safety culture among all employees of the Community Health Centre Ljubljana.

Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study in 2017 using the Slovene version of “Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture” from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Mean percent positive scores on all items in each composite were calculated according to a user guide.

Results
The final sample contained 1021 participants (67.8% response rate), of which 909 (89.0%) were women. The mean age of the sample was 43.0±11.0 years. The dimensions most highly rated by the respondents were: teamwork and patient care tracking/follow-up. The lowest scores came from leadership support for patients’ safety and work pressure and pace.

Conclusion
Patient safety culture in the Community Health Centre Ljubljana is high, but there are certain areas of patient safety that need to be evaluated further and improved. Our study revealed differences between professions, indicating that a customized approach per profession group might contribute to the successful implementation of safety strategies. Patient safety culture should be studied at national levels.

The safety culture of the Ljubljana community health centre’s employees

Slovenian Journal of Public Health

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Kultura varnosti zaposlenih v zdravstvenem domu Ljubljana

Introduction
Patient safety is one of the key aspects of healthcare quality and a serious global public health concern. Patient safety culture is a part of the...

Variable	n (%)
Gender
male	112 (11.0)
female	909 (89.0)

Medical office position
Physician, dentist	277 (27.2)
Healthcare assistants	211 (20.7)
Management	34 (3.3)
Administrative or clerical staff	45 (4.4)
Registered nurse	295 (28.9)
Other clinical staff or clinical support staff^a	127 (12.5)
Other position	31 (14.1)

Community Health Centre Ljubljana unit
Center	209 (20.5)
Moste-Polje	222 (21.7)
Management	37 (3.6)
Šentvid	47 (3.6)
Vič-Rudnik	195 (19.1)
Bežigrad	129 (12.6)
Unit SNMP	38 (3.7)
Šiška	144 (14.1)

Domain	Domain name	Statistically significant differences
		gender	age	unit	time	lenght	servis	position
A	Patient safety and	t=-2.173	ns	F=2.607	F=3.697	F=3.104	ns	ns
	quality of treatment	p=0.030		p=0.011	p=0.005	p=0.026
B	Exchange	ns	ns	F=5.540	ns	Ns	ns	ns
	of information			p<0.001
C1	Teamwork	ns	ns	F=3.243	ns	F=7.592	F=7.302	F=3.345
				p=0.002		p<0.001	p<0.001	p=0.010
C2	Work pressure	ns	F=5.193	F=9.109	ns	Ns	F=8.614	F=18.299
	and pace		p=0.001	p<0.001			p<0.001	p<0.001
C3	Staff training	ns	F=6.350	F=4.180	ns	F=3.592	F=7.036	ns
			p=0.000	p<0.001		p=0.006	p<0.001
C4	Office processes and	ns	ns	F=6.722	ns	Ns	F=3.872	F=9.541
	standardization			p<0.001			p=0.009	p<0.001
D1	Communication	ns	ns	F=2.799	ns	F=5.285	F=3.229	F=10.297
	openness			p=0.007		p<0.001	p=0.022	p<0.001
D2	Patient Care Tracking/	ns	ns	F=3.712	ns	Ns	ns	ns
	Follow-up			p=0.001
D3	Communication	ns	ns	ns	ns	F=3.473	ns	F=3.428
	about Errors					p=0.008		p=0.009
E	Leadership support	ns	F=9.113	F=2.604;	ns	F=2.401;	F=8.781;	F=6.690
	for patients’ safety		p<0.001	p=0.012		p=0.048	p<0.001	p<0.001
G1	Overall ratings	ns	ns	ns	F=4.229	Ns	ns	F=4.037
	on quality				p=0.001			p=0.003

The safety culture of the Ljubljana community health centre’s employees

Article Category: Original scientific article

Published Online: Jun 28, 2021

Page range: 145 - 151

Received: Dec 21, 2020

Accepted: May 18, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2021-0021

Keywords
patient safety, safety culture, family medicine, primary healthcare, Slovenia

© 2021 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Sample characteristics.

Associations between patient safety culture and the characteristics of respondents.

The safety culture of the Ljubljana community health centre’s employees

Article Category: Original scientific article

Published Online: Jun 28, 2021

Page range: 145 - 151

Received: Dec 21, 2020

Accepted: May 18, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2021-0021

Keywordspatient safety, safety culture, family medicine, primary healthcare, Slovenia

© 2021 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Sample characteristics.

Associations between patient safety culture and the characteristics of respondents.

Keywords
patient safety, safety culture, family medicine, primary healthcare, Slovenia