Journal of

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Background: A variety of methods are available for identifying and measuring adverse events and medical errors in healthcare. The aim of this study is to review these methods with their strengths and weaknesses.

Methods: Electronic databases including Medline, Embase, Google Scholar and Iran Medex were searched to identify and summaries relevant studies.

Results: Different methods have been used to identify adverse events and their nature, causes and consequences. Record review seems to be the most common and the best method for measuring the rate and consequences of adverse events. However, this method is relatively expensive and time consuming and still underestimates the rate of adverse events. It is also not suitable for identifying the underlying causes of adverse events. The other method commonly used is reporting system including critical incident reporting system. This method is relatively cheap and more suitable for exploring the underlying causes of adverse events, but it is not suitable for identifying the rate of adverse events as it may underestimate many adverse events. Other methods include critical incident technique, interview, questionnaire, direct observation and review of claims and none of them are suitable for identifying the rate of adverse events but they might be useful for other purposes including assessment of the causes of adverse events.

Conclusion: Several methods can be used for study of adverse events. No single method can serve all purposes. Each method has some strengths and weaknesses. Using a combination of methods is more suitable, but this approach is more expensive and time consuming. Which combination of methods are more appropriate, depends on several factors including the aim of the study and resources available.

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Background: Reporting of  medication errors  leads to saving Patients &apossafety and also is counted as a valuable information source for further prevention of mistake in future.  The aim of this study was to determine the reasons for refusing to report medication errors from the viewpoints of nurses.

Material and Methods:In this descriptive study, 140 of 200 nurses who were employees of Baharlo hospital of Tehran participated in the study (response rate = 70%). Data were collected through a questionnaire. Test- retest analysis conducted for measuring reliability of the questionnaire and content and face validity of the instrument confirmed by key statisticians and methodologists. . SPSS software and descriptive statistics were used for analyzing the collected data. 

Results:Our findings indicate that the reasons of not reporting medication errors were Management factors (3.68 ± 1.12), Fear of reporting outcomes (3.09 ± 1.68) and Process related to reporting (2.73± 1.26). Management factors domain was the major cause of refuse of reporting medication errors. 

Conclusion:Since medication errors seem to be unavoidable, suppression, decreasing medication error depends on using a systematic approach with emphasis on management and nursing care. 

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Background: Focusing on making opportunities to participate of patients in all levels of health care system is important in order to develop of system capability that could make improving of patients’ safety and quality of care services. The aim of this study was to determine inpatient perceptions in general hospitals of Tehran medical university regarding patient participate in treatment decisions and safety. Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional study in 1390. First, the list of eight general hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences and all clinical wards were obtained through the university website. Then, stratified random sampling method applied to collect 300 patients as a sample size. Data were collected by using a structured questionnaire that validity and reliability were accepted. Descriptive statistical methods, linear regression and multivariate logistic regression were applied to analyze. Results: From total of 300 patients, 60% of them were female. The level of participating by patients in cure decision making were at high level (59.7%) and 27% in low level. The range of patients’ safety was at high (60%) and low (26%). The level of participate in decision making of cure process had high rate among young people and employed participants. The patients who were unmarried, educated, and employed had lower score in patients’ safety. The participants’ perception had no effect on the patients’ safety perceptions. Conclusion: The symptoms that might be interpreted as an abnormal could be interpreted in different ways by the others. These unusual results could come from dissimilarities in demographic features

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Background: Patients' safety is a critical component of health care quality. As health care organizations continually strive to improve, there is important growing recognize of establishing a culture of patients' safety. To establish a safety culture in a healthcare organization, the first step is measuring the current culture. The aim of the study was to measure physicians, nurses and Para clinical personnel perceptions in patient safety culture in Tehran's selected hospitals, and to compare findings with U.S. hospitals.
Materials & Methods: Physicians, nurses, and Para clinical personnel who worked in training hospitals affiliated with Tehran university of medical sciences were asked to complete a self-administrated patients' safety culture survey (n = 145). Data collection was carried by using the Persian version of HSOPS, developed by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Cronbach's alpha and chi-square tests were employed in statistical analyses.
Results: Among the dimensions of patients' safety culture with the highest percentage of positive responses the teamwork within units (67%) was higher, whereas that with the lowest percentage of positive responses was non-punitive response to error (51%). Except to Handoffs and transitions dimension the entire dimension scores were lower than the benchmark scores. The study revealed that more than half of the participants were not reported the errors.
Conclusion: Improving patients' safety culture should be a priority among hospital administrators. Meanwhile, Healthcare staff should be encouraged to report errors without fear of punishment action.

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Background: Patient safety is one of the most important components of health care quality. Given that assessing the current culture of patient safety is the first step in improving patient safety, we decided to translate and validate one of the most used patient safety culture assessment tool (HSOPS questionnaire) for the first time in Iran, and in this way take a step toward improving patient safety in our hospitals.
Materials & Methods: This cross sectional study was done among four general hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), which were selected purposefully. Questionnaires randomly distributed among 420 members of the study population, and were collected after completion. Results were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), internal Consistency and correlation.
Results: The value of Fitness function (FF) was 14.25 and according to that, the value of Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) was 0.96. Almost in all of the dimensions, the internal consistency of items in the translated Persian questionnaire was lower than the original one and ranged between 0.57 to 0.8.
Conclusion: Regarding to the findings of this study the Persian translation of the HSOPS questionnaire is a valid tool for the assessment of patient safety culture in Iran's hospitals.

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Background: Health service providers' attitude profoundly influence quality of patient care and safety, and lead to increase effectiveness, cost controlling and decreasing complaint. This study aims to examine staff attitudes' about patients' safety culture in Noor & Ali Asghar hospitals in Isfahan province.
Materials & Methods: The survey was a cross-sectional study and was done in 2011. Data were collected from all the staff groups in hospital (n=106). A standard questionnaire from Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) with a =79% is used to evaluate staff attitudes' toward different aspects of patients' safety culture. This study used SPSS 16.0 to perform the statistical analysis.
Results: The response rate for the survey was 89%. The study revealed that 53.7% of the personnel were not reporting errors in 12 months before. Results showed that the average of staff attitudes' scale toward patients' safety culture was (64±5.28) the highest scale was belong to supervisor/ manager expectations & actions promoting patient safety (72.8±15.8) and the lowest one to handoffs & transitions (56.4±14.8).
Conclusions: According to scale of staff attitudes about patients' safety culture and its effect on service quality, doing reengineering of work environment, Patients' Safety Initiatives including personnel collaborative, communication openness about error, designing of education plan and making error reporting should be recommended.

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Background: Today using contrast media in order to diagnose different tissues in radiology section has found a vast range of applications. Thus application of safe procedures and protocols in usage of contrast media to prevent dangerous reactions seems to be of great necessity. That is why in this study we aimed to evaluate the safety of intravenous administration of contrast media in the radiology sections of medical-educational Centers of Urmia. Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive and cross sectional study. Data were gathered using questionnaires derived from articles and international standard guidelines such as (ESURE, RCR) in three areas including: drugs, protocols and facilities. Results: Results indicated that the level of compliance with safety protocols, facilities and drugs were 91.3% and 69.4% and 100% respectively. The average safety observance was 80.9% totally. The results showed that there were some deficiencies in some equipment such as pulse Oximeter and ECG. Moreover, it was found that a unique protocol is not used in all surveyed sections. Conclusion: Regarding the importance of this issue it is necessary to publish and implement a unique protocol for contrast media administrating and to provide all required equipment for improving patient safety process. Meanwhile a wide supervision should have been done by related authorities in or out of the organization.

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Background: Health care providers`culture about the patient safety means accepting and considering patient safety as the first priority and organizational core value or health center`s staffs beliefs, perceptions and trends of on patient safetywhich is reflected in their behavior. This study is aimed to assess nurses perceptions of patient safety culture`s dimensions which is working in hamadan`s hospital. Materials & Methods:The method of this study is descriptive- analytical type and statistical society includes 215 nurses of 3 hospitals of Hamadan which had been selected by random sampling. Stanford patient safety culture questionnaire was used to assess dimensions of patient safety culture.The data were analyzed by SPSS 15 software and descriptive tests. Results: The result indicated that all dimensions of patient safety culture through nurses` perception are weak . Among these dimensions, the " Unit Leadership for Safety " with 25.21 percentage and "Learning and Feedback " with 41.82 percentage were the lowest and highest positive rating in all three hospitals respictively . Conclusion: According to weak rate of all patient safety culture`s dimensions in studied hospitals, performing training programs by head nurses is suggested in order to improve cultural concepts such as establishing “supportive mechanisms for patients families” and "culture of discussion of errors among nurses" .

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Abstract Background: Accreditation is a program that is designed for evaluation of health care organizations and measured processes and structures according to predetermined standards. The purpose of this study is to survey the safety situation and quality of care in selected hospitals of Tehran University of medical sciences based on the Joint Commission International (JCI) standards and determination of their strengths and weaknesses. Materials and Method: This descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study was carried out in 5 hospitals. Translated Joint Commission International (JCI) questionnaire checklist with 14 standards was used as the study tool. Data entry and statistical analysis were performed using the SPSS.13 and K Independent Samples tests were used to compare hospitals. Results: Highest quality and safety of care score belonged to the hospital B (84%) and then to hospitals C (83%), A (72.75%), E (72%) and D (70.5%). Central indices like patient and family rights, quality improvement and patient safety, infection prevention and control standards in the studied hospitals are completely different according to the statistical results. Conclusion: Study results show that the status of hospitals in terms of safety and quality of care are almost appropriate but in some cases there is a large distance between JCI standards and their current status and the studied hospitals have to make appropriate and related policies in order to plan and implement proper programs to improve their situation in quality and safety of care.

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Background and Objective: The operating room is one of the main units in hospital, where the most important phase of patient treatment is performed. This study aimed to investigate the safety attitude among the staff of operating room in selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: In this descriptive - analytical study, 230 staff of operating room of hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences were selected by Random cluster sampling. Research tool was a safety attitude questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha 0.854) that classified in 3 categories: demographic questions (11questions), quality of communications (14questions) and safety attitude questions (58 questions). All data collected were analyzed using SPSS18. T-test, Spearman correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Chi-square have been used for data analyzing.

Results: The results indicated that 90.9% of staffs had moderate safety attitude and the average of the safety attitude score was 188.52(± 22.4). As the results showed, there was a positive and significant relationship between the safety attitude score and age, total work experience and work experience at hospital (p 046/0=, r =±0.141). There were significant differences between: average of the safety attitude score among men and women (P=0.047) average of the safety attitude score among staffs who have been trained and untrained safety (P=0.004).

Conclusion: The safety attitude score among the staff. It is therefore necessary to implement the effective interventions to improve safety attitude among operating room staff in understudy hospitals. 

Keywords: Safety attitude, Operating Room, Hospital, Staff

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Background: There is now a global concern about significant numbers of patients who are harmed or faced financial problems.Therefor, interving in organized approach to provide safe services seems necessary. This study is aimed to assess the basic indicators of patient safety in hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Science. Materials and Methods: This descriptive–analytical study was conducted in the 5 selected hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected using patient safety assessment protocol published by WHO(WORLD HEALTH ORGNAZIATION) tool.The questionnaires were filled using variety of different ways such as : interview, observation and documents investigation. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and also with descriptive and analytical tests. Results: The results showed total average of maintaining the standards was 51.1% which categorized as weak level based on the protocol . The highest and lowest rates of the domains studied were safe environment (68.8%) and continuing education (24.8%) respectively. Farabi and Rasul Akram hospitals had the best and the worst levels of maintaining indicators of patient safety standards .It is worth mentioning that the status of all the hospitals was in the same level. Statistical tests indicate that maintaining the standards does not differ significantly between participating hospitals. Conclusion: All participating hospitals has a poor performance through developing basic patient safety indicators .Managers` support and staff participation can be helpful to solve the mentioned issues. Paying attention to patient safety in managerial plans and putting equal value to various aspects of patient safety are pivotal

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Background: Hospital waste need a very sensitive and cautious attention due to holding hazardous, toxic, and pathogenic factors such as infectious, pharmaceutical, pathological, chemical and radioactive left-overs. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the observance of safety measures by workers responsible for collecting hospital wastes in the public hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences. Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 1391. Data were collected through using a questionnaire. According to the frequency distribution, total score for participants was divided into three weak (<26), average (26-30), and high (>30) categories. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 18 software using T-Test, one-way ANOVA and regression analysis. Findings: Based on the results, 33.3% of hospitals received suitable, 55.5% received average and the remaining (11.2%) received a weak score regarding safety measures. Moreover, there was a statistically significant correlation between cleaning staff’s characteristics (education, age, work experiences and their training) with their safety status score. Conclusion: Implementing current national principles and standards and conquering shortages, proper planning, using young workers alongside with experienced ones, more training courses and respecting and paying enough attention to cleaning staff would help to improve the safety of collecting hospital wastes.

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Background: Injuries related to failures and errors due to clinical interventions in patient hospitalization period in hospital are the main reasons of mortality and mortality in worldwide. This study tries to identify and description ICU care failures and assessing the causes of risks, Severity, Occurrence and identifying risk probability ratio and risk prioritizing using FMEA method.

Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in order to evaluating existing situation using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and utilizes volere logic to plan the patient safety management system. This study performed in the intensive care unit of Loghman Hakim hospital in Iran.

Results: Study finding revealed sixteen routine failures and its priorities which the five main issues were documented as error in decision phase for patients admission or in-admission (PRN 1000), error in discharge time of patient from ICU (PRN 1000), insufficient infection control (PRN 1000) and error in clinical ordering and prescriptions (PRN 800).

Conclusion: The main requirements of the patient safety management identified as planning standards and clinical guidelines, developing evidence based admission and non admission indicators, enacting infection control rules and education of anticipating standards places, hand washing and disinfecting instrument and equipments.

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Background: One of the main components of the quality of health services is patient safety. This study aimed to determine safety culture status of psychiatric patients from the viewpoint of the medical staff of Ibn Sina and Hafez hospitals in Shiraz.
 
Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytic study performed as a cross-sectional one in 2017. The study population included 165 health care personnel of the hospitals which were selected by census sampling. The study tool was a standard questionnaire for the hospital's safety culture. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate linear regression using SPSS version 23 software at a significant level of α = 5%.
 
Results: The average of safety status of the patients calculated 154.62 ± 19.74. The patient safety culture was estimated at an acceptable level (64.1%). The dimensions of personnel affairs (36%) and non-punitive responses to errors (34.7%) were in an unfavorable situation. There was a significant association between the employment status of personnel and patient safety (P<0.05).
 
Conclusion: Despite the acceptable condition of the patient's safety culture, however, the dimensions of the non-responsive response to the mistakes and issues related to the personnel were in an unfavorable situation and require prompt and appropriate actions. It is suggested that hospital authorities to provide the necessary interventions including cultures for reporting of errors, organizing comprehensive training programs, and continuously improving the clinical governance system.
 

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Background: Nosocomial Infections (Nis) Are Regarded As The Most Common Complications Of Health Cares. These Infections Affect Patient’s Safety in Developing and Developed Countries. The Aim Of This Study Was To Epidemiology and Determine the Causes of Nosocomial Infectioin Teaching Hospital of Tehran In A Teaching Hospital In Tehran.
Materials and Methods: This Cross-Sectional, Descriptive And Analytical Study Was Designed In 2019 At A Teaching Hospital Affiliated With Iran University Of Medical Sciences. The Nosocomial Infection Registry Data between 2017 and 2018 Was Used. The SPSS24.0 Software Package Was Used To Analyze Data Into Descriptive (Frequency, Percentage, Mean and Standard Deviation( And Analytical) ANOVA) Statistics.
Result: The Most Frequent Type of Infections Were Urinary Tract (39.76%), Ventilator Associated Events (20.92%), Bloodstream (20.71%), Respectively. Skin and Soft Tissue Infections (0.7%) Had The Lowest Prevalence. The Highest Incidence Of Nosocomial Infection Was In The ICU With 200 Patients And The Lowest Incidence Was In The ENT With 23.1 Patients And The Overall Incidence Of Nosocomial Infections Was 84.9 Patients Per 10,000 Patient-Days.

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Background and purpose: Electrocautery is a very important tool in surgery. Electrocautery burn is a common side effect of operation surgeries. Quality management is a useful strategy for improving the quality and safety of hospital services. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of quality management on reducing electrocautery burns.
 
Materials and methods: A participatory action research was conducted in the operating theatre of a hospital in Tehran, Iran, in 2013 and 2014. A quality improvement team was established in the hospital operating theatre. The quality improvement team using an 8-step quality management model, standardized working processes, identified quality goals for the processes and improved them until achieved the quality goals. Data on electrocautery burns was collected before and after the intervention and compared.
 
Results: Electrocautery burn rate was 0.40% in 2012. A wet patient due to sweating or washing during the surgery, in-appropriate patient position, faulty earth well, faulty anti-static mattress and long usage of electrocautery devices were the main reasons of electrocautery burn injuries. Accordingly an action plan was developed and implemented for preventing and reducing electrocautery burns. Consequently, electrocautery burn rate was reduced to 0.21% and 0.02% in 2013 and 2014. Electrocautery burn was significantly reduced by 95% in two years.
 
Conclusion: Electrocautery burns can be easily prevented using the quality management strategy. Implementing an appropriate quality management model appropriately in a supportive environment enhances the safety of hospital services.

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Introduction: The operating room is one of the most sophisticated workplaces, consisting of a vast array of electrical, gas and radiation equipment that are more susceptible to accident than other hospital departments. Therefore it is important to observe safety tips in this section. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the standard of safety in operating rooms of hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences in 2019.
Method: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The statistical population consisted of all operating rooms of hospitals affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. The tool used was a checklist that was completed by researchers by observation and interviewing on-site. Safety standards have been evaluated in terms of the physical space of the operating room, fire safety, personnel safety, patient safety, infection control. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.
Results: The operating rooms of university-affiliated hospitals were 80.10% secure in overall safety. The patient's safety area, with 83.34%, had the shortest distance from the standards and the infection control safety area, with 74.24%, had the highest distance from the standards. The highest and lowest scores were related to the safety standard related to the operating room of hospitals (2) and (1).
Conclusion: According to the findings, the operating rooms of the studied hospitals are generally in desirable compliance with safety standards. However, it is essential to pay attention to problem areas to increase the safety factor for staff and patients in the operating room, so appropriate remedial measures should be taken to ensure complete safety of the operating room for all components.

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Introduction : A large number of hospitals and medical healthcare centers catch fire every year. Nowadays, one of the most significant challenges that hospital designers and health providers faced with is fire safety. This study conducted to determine a comprehensive model for fire safety in hospitals by reviewing related studies.
 
Method: This study was conducted using a comprehensive review to find a research paper published on fire in hospitals. Electronic databases such as PubMed Scopus google were searched using the proper search strategy. 
 
Results: Overall, 14 studies were obtained. The findings were analyzed qualitatively through thematic synthesis and divided into some main themes: essential sections and divisions of hospitals in the field of fire, emergency exit patterns, materials and construction status, Flammable consumables materials in hospitals, and appropriate firefighting equipment.
 
Conclusion: The dangers of medical equipment and flammable material, the types of firefighting equipment in the hospital building, architectural safety issues regarding the degree of fire resistance of structures, roofs, doors, walls, and emergency exit stairs are crucial points To protect staff and patients in hospitals that should consider simultaneously.

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Background and Aim: Clinical governance is one of the important frameworks for continuous quality improvement and safety in health care systems. Identifying the axes of this approach according to local conditions is one of the important priorities of the health system. The aim of this study was to identify the views of stakeholders on the axes of clinical governance in primary health care based on family physicians in Mazandaran province.
Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted using the conceptual framework analysis method in 2018-2019. The study population were key policy makers of Ministry of Health, Health deputy of the University, the county health network, family physicians association, family physicians, and the parliament research center. Participants were selected using purposeful and snowball sampling methods. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed and coded using MAXQDA 11 software.
Findings: According to the interviewees' views, the research findings were classified into 4 main dimensions: dimensions of clinical governance, requirements and structures, decision-makers and dimensions of quality and safety assessment. 17 sub-themes including community participation, clinical audit, clinical effectiveness, personnel management, training, information use, risk management, guidelines and procedures, promotion of health indicators, equipment and facilities, referral system, financing, policy makers, effectiveness, efficiency, human aspects of services and justice were identified and extracted.
Conclusion: According to the research findings, to facilitate the implementation of clinical governance, solutions such as the existence of appropriate infrastructure, commitment of managers, supportive culture, sufficient knowledge, monitoring and evaluation, appropriate culture building, facilities and equipment and sufficient financial resources are suggested.

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