Patient safety culture of chiropractors and variables predictive of overall patient safety rating: Response to an adapted version of the Survey on Patient Safety Culture Medical Office Survey.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of patient safety and quality issues reported by chiropractors and identify factors predictive for overall patient safety.

METHODS: Chiropractors from the United States attending postgraduate courses with the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association completed a survey in June 2008 to August 2017. The survey collected their sociodemographic information, practice characteristics, and an adapted version of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture. In addition to descriptive statistics, random forest and elastic net logistic regression analyses were applied to assess the variable strongly predictive of the overall patient safety rating.

RESULTS: Respondents were 125 chiropractors (average age = 36.0 years, average years in practice = 8.3). Issues (ie, ensuring that malfunctioning equipment is repaired, lack of leadership support) were identified that can be targeted for interventions to enhance patient safety in chiropractic. Key findings were responses that included preventing mistakes from occurring and reoccurring, ensuring that chronic patients follow their treatment regimen, and providing efficient and cost-effective care were strongly predictive for overall patient safety rating.

CONCLUSION: For this group of chiropractors, the frequency of patient safety and quality issues and factors for overall patient safety were identified. Chiropractors reported that they were willing to work collaboratively, speak up and voice concerns about safety issues, facilitate changes in office processes to improve the quality of patient care, and have a positive overall perception of patient safety and quality.