Hospital Practices and Research

Patient Safety Behavior in Physicians: How is it Predicted?

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Maryam Yaghoubi 1
Marzieh Javadi 2
Saied Karimi 2
Elham Ehsani 3

1 Health Management Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

2 Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, IR Iran

3 Human Resource for Health Office, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, IR Iran

https://doi.org/10.20286/hpr-010265
Abstract
Background: Patient safety is a serious global public health issue. Estimates show that every day many patients are harmed while receiving hospital care. Health care staff plays a key role in providing quality and safe patient care, especially physicians who are main members of the medical team and a critical element in patient safety efforts.
Objective: The current study used a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework to investigate predictors of patient safety intentions and behavior of physicians.
Methods: This descriptive analytical study was conducted in 8 hospitals with 52 physicians participating. A researcher-designed questionnaire was prepared to investigate patient safety behaviors and behavior constructs of physicians based on the guidelines of constructing a TPB Questionnaire: Conceptual and Methodological Considerations. The content validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed using SPSS18.
Results: The total mean score of physician safety behavior indicated that 3.8±0.92. 42% of physicians reported their safety behavior at a good level. There was no significant difference between the patient safety function of physicians in public and private hospitals (P=0.8) and working in medical or surgical wards (P=0.4). Among TPB constructs, “normative beliefs” had the greatest influence on physician intention for safety behaviors (wald=3.828, P=0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed that “normative beliefs” had the greatest influence on physician intention for safety behaviors; therefore, it seems that patient safety must be the most important concern of all health care staff, specifically managers and executives throughout health care centers.

Keywords

patient safety
physicians
Behavior
Hospitals
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