ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ADVERSE EVENTS IN NURSING CARE, SAFETY CULTURE AND PATIENT COMPLEXITY IN A CHILEAN HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objective: To determine the association between safety culture, the degree of complexity of the patients and the incidence of adverse events associated with nursing care in a Chilean hospital. Method: Cross-seccional study, with a quantitative approach, analytical and ecological design, which in 869 reports measured AE that occurred between 2014 - 2017. Safety culture was measured with the total number of nurses (95) through the Patient Safety Questionnaire, a Spanish version adapted from the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, an original survey from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), from the United States; the complexity of the patient was measured according to data from the Related Group of Diagnoses (DRG).
The analysis considered descriptive statistics and Spearman correlations and logistic regressions between AD incidence adjusted for complexity and safety culture. Results: The mean global security perception was 7.69 points; Dimensions 4 (organizational learning / continuous improvement) and 5 (teamwork in the unit / service) are considered strengths; dimension 9 (staffing) with opportunity for improvement; more complex services have a higher incidence of AE and a higher safety culture; There is a linear association between the incidence of AD adjusted to complexity and the global security climate (beta coefficient = -5.11; p value 0.004; CI 1.65 and 8.5). Conclusions: The association between quality culture, complexity of care and adverse events is confirmed. The higher incidence of AE is due to the greater number of reports and not to its greater occurrence. Health institutions must promote and implement strategies to increase the safety culture level in nursing personnel to improve the delivery of quality care in health.