title: [Safety culture: definition, models and design].
abstract: Safety culture is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Safety culture of a healthcare organization is high if it has a common stock in knowledge, values and symbols in regard to patients' safety. The article intends to define safety culture in the first step and, in the second step, demonstrate the effects of safety culture. We present the model of safety behaviour and show how safety culture can affect behaviour and produce safe behaviour. In the third step we will look at the causes of safety culture and present the safety-culture-model. The main hypothesis of this model is that the safety culture of a healthcare organization strongly depends on its communication culture and its social capital. Finally, we will investigate how the safety culture of a healthcare organization can be improved. Based on the safety culture model six measures to improve safety culture will be presented.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Medizinsoziologie, Versorgungsforschung und Rehabilitationswissenschaft der Humanwissenschaftlichen und der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln (IMVR) & Zentrum für Versorgungsforschung Köln (ZVFK). holger.pfaff@uk-koeln.de
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pfaff
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ernstmann
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kowalski
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ommen
mesh_terms: D003469:Culture; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards*