A closer look at associations between hospital leadership walkrounds and patient safety climate and risk reduction: a cross-sectional study.
Leadership walkrounds (WRs) are widely used in health care organizations to improve patient safety. This retrospective, cross-sectional study evaluated the association between WRs and caregiver assessments of patient safety climate and patient safety risk reduction across 49 hospitals in a nonprofit health care system. Linear regression analyses using units' participation in WRs were conducted. Survey results from 706 hospital units revealed that units with ≥ 60% of caregivers reporting exposure to at least 1 WR had a significantly higher safety climate, greater patient safety risk reduction, and a higher proportion of feedback on actions taken as a result of WRs compared with those units with <60% of caregivers reporting exposure to WRs. WR participation at the unit level reflects a frequency effect as a function of units with none/low, medium, and high leadership WR exposure.
1University of Basel, Institute of Nursing Science, Basel, Switzerland.
René
R
Schwendimann
Judy
J
Milne
Karen
K
Frush
Dietmar
D
Ausserhofer
Allan
A
Frankel
J Bryan
JB
Sexton
D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005246:Feedback; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D015279:Organizational Culture; D061214:Patient Safety; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D014481:United States
hospital; leadership; leadership walkrounds; patient safety; safety climate