Assessment of Safety Climate at La General Hospital

Abstract

Background: Safety climate is essential in the healthcare sector. To enhance safety climate, it is prudent to create and maintain a positive safety environment or climate in order to protect both patients and staff. Safety climate is a predictive measure of safety; it studies the workers‟ perceptions of safety at the workplace. This study therefore assessed the safety climate at La General Hospital. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 194 workers of La General Hospital in Accra, Ghana. The Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire was adopted in addition to questions on background characteristics. Stratified and convenience sampling procedures were used. Results were analyzed with SPSS (Version 21) and presented in frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square, and multiple logistic regression. Results: The results indicated that the ability of management to handle safety issues was not adequate. Perception of staff towards safety was positive but frequency of safety training was not encouraging. All socio-demographic characteristics examined, had significant relationships with safety climate; Sex (p=0.003), age (p<0.001), level of education (p<0.001), job tittle (p<0.001), duration of working at the hospital (p<0.001), membership of hospital management (p<0.001), and receipt of refresher course in safety (p<0.001). Despite the fact that staff had a positive perception of safety climate, management lacked the ability to handle safety issues adequately. Conclusion: The study underscores the need for management of the hospital, to create a health and safety committee in the hospital to oversee the health and safety needs of the facility. Management also needs to organize and integrate safety training during induction of new staff. Moreover, staff opinion needs to be sought on ways to improve safety.