Patient safety culture and reporting barriers among healthcare professionals in the United Arab Emirates: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

To assess patient safety culture using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and to examine associations between occupational characteristics, perceived incident-reporting barriers, and overall safety culture scores among healthcare professionals in the United Arab Emirates.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and March 2023 among 629 healthcare professionals in the United Arab Emirates, including physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals, using convenience sampling. Participants completed a sociodemographic and work characteristics questionnaire alongside the HSOPSC. Item-level positive response rates were calculated, and overall HSOPSC mean scores were compared across occupational characteristics and reporting-barrier frequency categories using t-tests and analysis of variance (two-sided; P < 0.05).

RESULTS

Reporting of near-miss events was limited (40.1%), despite high levels of perceived interpersonal respect (84.2%). Respondents reporting barriers seldom demonstrated significantly higher patient safety culture scores across the majority of barrier domains (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Targeted system-level interventions, including simplification of reporting processes, strengthening nonpunitive culture, and improving feedback mechanisms, are recommended to enhance reporting and patient safety outcomes.