Background: The status of Safety Management is highly relevant to
evaluate an organization’s ability to deal with unexpected events or errors,
especially in times of crisis. However, it remains unclear to what extent
Safety Management was developed and suffciently implemented within the
healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing insights of
potential for improvement is expected to be directional for ongoing Safety
Management efforts, in times of crisis and beyond.
Method: A nationwide survey study was conducted among healthcare
professionals and auxiliary staff on German Intensive Care Units (ICUs)
evaluating their experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Error Management and Patient Safety Culture (PSC) measures served to
operationalize Safety Management. Data were analyzed descriptively and by
using quantitative content analysis (QCA).
Results: Results for n = 588 participants from 53 hospitals show that there is
a gap between errors occurred, reported, documented, and addressed. QCA
revealed that low quality of safety culture (27.8%) was the most mentioned
reason for errors not being addressed. Overall, ratings of PSC ranged from
26.7 to 57.9% positive response with Staffng being the worst and Teamwork
Within Units being the best rated dimension. While assessments showed a
similar pattern, medical staff rated PSC on ICUs more positively in comparison
to nursing staff.
Conclusion: The status-analysis of Safety Management in times of crisis
revealed relevant potential for improvement. Human Factor plays a crucial role
in the occurrence and the way errors are dealt with on ICUs, but systemic
factors should not be underestimated. Further intensified efforts specifically in
the fields of staffng and error reporting, documentation and communication
are needed to improve Safety Management on ICUs. These findingsmight also
be applicable across nations and sectors beyond the medical field.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:90257 |
| Date | 03 May 2024 |
| Creators | Schmidt, Michelle, Lambert, Sophie Isabelle, Klasen, Martin, Sandmeyer, Benedikt, Lazarovici, Marc, Jahns, Franziska, Trefz, Lara Charlott, Hempel, Gunther, Sopka, Sasa |
| Publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 988746 |
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