Attitude of Health Center Staff towards the Components of Patient Safety Culture and Assessing Patient Satisfaction, Amol, Iran

Background and purpose: Patient safety is one of the most important indicators of primary healthcare settings. There is a direct association between patient safety culture and improvement in healthcare outcomes. Also, identifying the factors that enhance client satisfaction could be of great help in improving quality of care. This research was done to investigate patient safety culture in health centers in Amol, Iran and evaluating patient satisfaction attending these centers. Materials and methods: A descriptive study was carried out in 422 individuals including healthcare staff (n=211) and patients (n=211) selected from health centers in Amol, Iran between March and June 2018. The Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (MOSPSC) was administered among the healthcare staff. The scale measures 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. The patients responded to service quality (SERVQUAL) scale which evaluates the quality of services received. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS V22. Results: Positive attitude in all dimensions was 82% among the staff. The highest rate of positive attitudes were seen towards patient follow up (85%) and the lowest rate was found towards total quality assessment and safety (59%). Total patient satisfaction was 79%. The highest level of satisfaction was in dimension of trust (88%) and the lowest was found to be in accessing to the physician (18%). Conclusion: Adequate number of staff and providing them with standard working conditions alongside allocating sufficient resources to improve quality and care could be of great benefit in improving safety culture in healthcare settings. Moreover, managers could adopt collaborative approaches and recognize client perceptions and expectations to enhance their satisfaction.