Perception of patients and families on the safety of hospital care at a university hospital

Abstract

Objective: To describe the patients and families´ perception on the safety of health care provided at a highly complex Colombian University Hospital during the hospitalization process. Methodology: It was used a quantitative study with descriptive-transversal approach and non-randomized stratified sampling, with a sample of 276 participants from the hospitalization andemergency services. Thedata collection wasdonewiththequestionnaire “Perception of safety of health care in the hospital setting”. Results: The dimensions investigated were: 1. Information received by patients with 88.8% of agreement; 2. Quality in health care received with 88.2% of agreement; 3. 97.2% did not identify adverse events; 4. 99.64% did not identify incidents in health care; and 5. Feeling of safety perceived by 88.77% as safe and at 4.35% as slightly safe. Discussion and conclusions: It was found a high positive perception of safety in health care provided and low number of adverse events and incidents. The behavior of the results was generally similar among the 3 categories of participants (patient and caregiver, patient only and family caregiver only) and by participating services. This shows the importance of implementing and maintaining institutional strategies that go from policies, programs, tivities in the services so that patients and their families feel safe in front of their health situation and treatment.