Introduction

Colombia, just like other countries, promotes patient safety policies to reduce and, if possible, eliminate the occurrence of adverse events.

Objective

To identify the patient safety culture at six surgical centers located in Antioquia using the dimensions described in the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture instrument.

Materials and Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional multicenter study was conducted at different healthcare institutions providing secondary, tertiary and quaternary levels of care between November 2016 and November 2018 in the department of Antioquia. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture instrument proposed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was applied to 514 health workers.

Results

On a scale of zero to ten, the average safety perception in surgical services is 8. 62% of the responses regarding the perception of safety culture were positive. The highest scores were organizational learning/continuous improvement in 82.94% of the workers and service teamwork in 82.94%. The lowest scores were a nonpunitive response to errors in 46.25% and communication openness in 45.38%.

Discussion

The dimensions with the highest and lowest scores reported in the research are comparable to those reported in other studies and require attention from the healthcare system and the directors of the institutions.

Conclusion

Strengths and weaknesses in the patient safety culture were detected. The strengths were organizational learning/continuous improvement and teamwork at the unit/service.

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