Assessment of patient safety culture in the Gaza Strip Hospitals

Culture is described as a critical element of healthcare safety and quality. This study aims to assess a patient safety culture in GS hospitals.A cross-sectional, descriptive design was utilized. A total number of 376 clinical and non-clinical hospitals’ staff participated in the current study. Data were collected using an Arabic version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC). The study data was evaluated using the SPSS for Windows 20.0. Dimensional- and item-level positive scores were used for results reporting. Additionally descriptive statistics, Chi- square test, independent sample t-test and ANOVA were used for data analyzing. Finding shows,the dimensions which elicited the highest positive ratings were teamwork within units (78%), and organizational learning and continuous improvement (72%); meanwhile those with the lowest ratings included staffing (58%), and non-punitive response to error (48%). Statistically significant differences among hospitals and also in reference to participants working characteristics (P<0.05). Small hospitals recived significantly higher mean safety scores than large hospitals, and physicians were the least positive towards safety than other employees (p