title: 'Not another safety culture survey': using the Canadian patient safety climate survey (Can-PSCS) to measure provider perceptions of PSC across health settings.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The importance of a strong safety culture for enhancing patient safety has been stated for over a decade in healthcare. However, this complex construct continues to face definitional and measurement challenges. Continuing improvements in the measurement of this construct are necessary for enhancing the utility of patient safety climate surveys (PSCS) in research and in practice. This study examines the revised Canadian PSCS (Can-PSCS) for use across a range of care settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Confirmatory factor analytical approaches are used to extensively test the Can-PSCS. Initial and cross-validation samples include 13 126 and 6324 direct care providers from 119 and 35 health settings across Canada, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results support a parsimonious model of direct care provider perceptions of patient safety climate (PSC) with 19 items in six dimensions: (1) organisational leadership support for safety; (2) incident follow-up; (3) supervisory leadership for safety; (4) unit learning culture; (5) enabling open communication I: judgement-free environment; (6) enabling open communication II: job repercussions of error. Results also support the validity of the Can-PSCS across a range of care settings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Can-PSCS has several advantages: (1) it is a theory-based instrument with a small number of actionable dimensions central to the construct of PSC; (2) it has robust psychometric properties; (3) it is validated for use across a range of care settings, therefore suitable for use in regionalised health delivery systems and can help to raise expectations about acceptable levels of PSC across the system; (4) it has been tested in a publicly funded universal health insurance system and may be suitable for similar international systems.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Policy and Management, , York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Liane R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Ginsburg
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tregunno
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Norton
authors.forename: Jonathan I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Howley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D010465:Perception; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012944:Social Support; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Accreditation; Evaluation Methodology; Patient Safety; Safety Culture